Rebirth
by MassEffectMaster
Summary: Commander Shepard was brought back from the dead to kill the Collectors. But in the process, he realizes and does so much more. With Garrus and Tali at his side, he fights the Collectors and a new Shepard emerges from the fires. Non-twin FShep, MShep/Tali and FShep/Garrus. Other couples too. ME2-ME3. Renamed and Remade from "Betrayel" Varying Cursing.
1. A Broken Promise

So this is the beginning of the fanfiction. Congratulations, you found the entrance! I don't own Mass Effect or I would just make every single idea in here incorporated into the games. Thank you for reading, please review.

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For once, Tali felt grateful that she had a visor; no one could see the stupid smile on her face. Tonight she and Shepard planned to be… together. The antibiotics gathered, the research done, finally their time arrived.

According to the digital clock Tali had on her HUD, Shepard's shift ended a few hours ago. She didn't want to wake him up, but she felt certain that he was already awake.

He didn't sleep well, nightmares of Torfan, Virmire, and numerous other battles woke him up; as the thought crossed her mind a pang of sorrow rang through her for Shepard's pain. She suppressed it and activated the elevator to ascend from the Normandy's hanger.

As the elevator reached the quarters deck, a violent tremor shook the Normandy, throwing Tali from the elevator and onto the staircase. _"Keelah, we're under attack! I have to get Shepard!" _As Tali picked herself up and ran through the quakes towards Shepard's quarters she noticed him at the end of the hall, between the sleeper pods.

She reached him just as he put his helmet on. Another vibration threw Tali into Shepard's arms, he looked into her eyes through her visor, "Tali, the distress beacon is ready for launch. I need you to go help people into the shuttle."

Tali was shocked, now especially he would need the extra help, "No, John I'm not leaving you here, besides Joker is still in the cockpit, I need to go get him!" Shepard looked around, the whole area was ablaze and the Normandy was going down. "Tali, that was** not** a question, go now!"

Tali cocked her head, surprised at him. In a gentler tone he added, "Please go Tali. I'll get Joker. And I'll be back. I promise." Tali reluctantly nodded and ran towards the escape pods against every instinct she had.

Shepard waited a moment to ensure Tali left and ran for the command deck. He had to get Joker out; there was no way in hell he was going to let him die. As Shepard opened the door to the command deck all the air in the lower decks rushed out, making it difficult to walk.

When Shepard looked up he could see the ship that was attacking them, it was massive, and clearly not geth. He would figure out what was attacking him later, now he just had to get himself and Joker off the ship. Shepard was moving as fast as he could, which wasn't much without air pressure, but nonetheless.

In front of him Shepard could see Joker was still trying to fly the Normandy to safety. In slightly less dire circumstances the dedication that the pilot was showing was admirable, right now though, it was idiotic. As Shepard walked through the kinetic barrier that had been initiated he immediately felt relieved to see Joker still alive, and not joining the scattered corpses.

The air pressure allowed Shepard to run up to Joker so he could yell, "Come on Joker! We have to get out of here!" Joker didn't even bother to look at Shepard, as he refused, "No I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!" Shepard leaned over the pilot's chair, "The Normandy's lost. Going down with her won't change that."

Joker sighed and nodded, "Yeah, alright, help me up," as Shepard was about to pull him up, Joker noticed the hostile ship turning around, "They're coming around for another attack!" Shepard grabbed Joker and practically yanked his arm out of its socket pulling the man up, much to the pilots discomfort, "Hey, watch the arm!"

Shepard shuffled to the escape pod with Jokers arm around him. Just as Joker got in, the center of the Normandy exploded, hurling Shepard away from the entrance to the pod. Barely conscious of his actions, Shepard pressed the button to launch the escape pod. The last words he heard were Joker yelling "Commander!" The spot where Shepard had been standing was now being ripped apart by the enemy ship. The ensuing explosion slammed Shepard against a wall and sent him flying past the wreckage of the Normandy.

From a distance Shepard could see the Normandy, his home, destroyed and gone. _"Agh...Alright, a few broken bones and I'm spaced. Not the worst thing ever, my oxygen might be able to keep me until a ship-oh crap what was that sound?" _It was the oxygen tank of Shepard's N7 suit rupturing. _"What? NO!" _Shepard had been ready for his death ever since Torfan, but now he had someone to live for, Tali. Garrus, Ashley, Liara, and Wrex were all great friends, but in the end, Tali gave him his reason to life.

As the last of Shepard's air began to fade, his life flashed before his eyes. His childhood was just years of…nothing, he was a spacer, he lived on starships his whole life; and then he enlisted in the alliance, a few crap missions, and the Battle of Elysium. His father was part of the first deployment, and he was murdered by the batarians. They said that Shepard had heroically held the line until reinforcements arrived, they were wrong. His childhood was nothing, but Shepard still loved his parents, the death of his father sent him into a homicidal rage. He barely managed to retain his strategy, he channeled all the rage he had into murdering every batarian he saw.

After he got off of Elysium he went to world after world and murdered every last batarian on each and every one of them. As the war was coming to a close, he went to Torfan to clear out the batarians. He had exactly 24 soldiers under his command (technically they were under Major Kyles command, but Kyle broke during combat), and he killed them all. His desire for vengeance controlled him, he sent them all into a batarian bunker and refused an opportunity for retreat. Only a few soldiers survived, only him and five others, including the Major, survived.

For years Shepard endured the trauma that he had suffered, for years he played it down. He spent hundreds of nights with a pistol on the table, contemplating whether or not it could change anything. After Torfan Shepard was immediately promoted to Commander and enrolled in the N7 program.

Eventually he was assigned to the Normandy, and then he dropped onto Eden Prime. Jenkins died, yet another death on Shepard's conscious. He met Ashley and found Nihlus dead. They went to the Citadel to report it. There he met Garrus and Wrex, and then…Tali. She was under attack by mercenaries, and holding data that would make his life so much easier.

The Council made him a Spectre. The first human Spectre. Honestly, Shepard didn't care; he just wanted to bring Saren to justice. Anderson gave up his title for him, and he made sure to honor the former Captains memory.

As the Normandy flew from world to world it was the best time of Shepard's life. He developed feelings for Tali, and in turn, she developed feelings for him. He even gave her classified data about the geth that they had retrieved together in the Armstrong Cluster. On Therum the Normandy picked up another passanger, the asari Liara T'Soni. On Noveria Shepard saved a Rachni Queen, on Feros, he didn't dare shoot a single colonist, he saved Terra Nova from batarian terrorists, but then came Virmire.

A message came asking Shepard to find an STG team on Virmire. After the team got the STG camp they had to begin the mission, they were going to detonate a nuke in the center of a cloning facility Saren had on the planet. Shepard took every measure to make sure that the STG's Captain Kirrahe and his team would survive the mission. Enough people had died, he didn't need any more. Nonetheless there was one casualty. Just one. Kaiden Alenko.

Kaiden had been a friend of Shepard since he had joined the Normandy. It was the most difficult choice Shepard ever had to make. No matter what, he was going to have to kill one of his close friends. On top of this came the revelation that Sovereign, Saren's ship, was in fact a Reaper, and that should they fail, thousands, maybe millions others would come back.

In the end it had to be Kaiden who stayed behind. Ashley had a family, sisters who depended on her. Kaiden was a great man, but it had to be him.

Shepard spent weeks mourning Kaiden, one day he was simply talking to Tali in his quarters. "He trusted me, and… If I… I fucking killed him. I left him to die. I could have gone back. I could have done things differently. Just like Torfan… I sent him to die." Nothing could erase the trauma of Kaiden's death. It was then that, half delirious from a suit puncture on Virmire, Tali confessed her feelings to Shepard. He admitted his reciprocation of her feelings, and they spent the night consoling each other about Kaiden.

The Council called Shepard back to the Citadel, supposedly to muster forces to chase Saren down. They pulled him to the Citadel, grounded his ship, and lectured him on subtlety. Tali came to Shepard, and reassured him of his capability to figure a way to leave.

Anderson called Shepard and explained how the Normandy could leave, Anderson would have to unlock the Normandy, and so he had to use the computer in Udina's office. Udina got a fist in the face, and Shepard got to leave for Ilos to find Saren.

Tali and Shepard had considered being together, but in the end Shepard refused. It could have gotten Tali sick, and Shepard couldn't risk her health, especially not before Ilos, if that went wrong, the whole universe was screwed. He couldn't do that for any woman, not even Tali.

On Ilos Shepard met the program Vigil who explained that the Conduit that both Shepard and Saren had been seeking was in fact a miniature mass relay to the heart of the Citadel. After a drive through a Prothean bunker, Shepard and his standard squadmates, Garrus and Tali, reached the Conduit. The Conduit flung them across the galaxy, out through the Relay Monument on the Presidium.

After over half an hour, a spacewalk, and dozens of geth and krogan, the team finally reached Saren, he was at the same location where Shepard had met the Council. Shepard had always had a silver tongue, he had managed to talk down Wrex on Virmire, and then he managed to talk Saren down.

Actually, he convinced Saren to shoot himself, he didn't want another death on his conscious, but the turian was too far-gone. Shepard opened the Citadel's arms and opened the mass relays for the Alliance fleet to come and save the Destiny Ascension. No more people would die that day.

Sovereign was able to bring Saren back as some kind of mechanical monstrosity, the team managed to kill what was left of Saren, and he disintegrated. With the loss of his pawn, Sovereign's misplaced power was gone, and the Alliance ripped apart the weakened Reaper.

Pieces of the broken Reaper flew throughout the Citadel; a certain piece hit the Presidium Tower, right where Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and the rest of the six man team stood. Tali and Garrus made it out of the way of the incoming debris. Shepard didn't. Fortunately enough, he lived with nothing but a broken arm.

Humans were offered a seat on the Council, and Shepard suggested Anderson be named humanity's councilor. Udina was pissed, but Anderson would fight for humanity and never give up.

For a long time there was nothing, just missions hunting geth, they weren't exactly glamorous and they weren't too dangerous, just the way Shepard liked them. Then…this.

All these thoughts raced through Shepard's oxygen-deprived head in a few seconds. As he reached the final stages of suffocation, one thought passed through his head, _"No…can't…die…can't…leave…Tali…"_Then the body of the man that had saved Elysium, Torfan, the Citadel, and the galaxy, went limp.

Tali sat on board one of the escape pods from the Normandy, that ship had been her home, and she didn't enjoy seeing it burn, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that everyone got out safe, and so far most people had escaped, Ashley, Liara, and Garrus were all in the same escape pod with her. A few servicemen hadn't gotten out, but at least most people survived.

Everyone waited silently for one call, the one that would ensure that the one most important man on the ship was alive. Finally it came, and the previously silent space lit up with thanks that Joker and Shepard were ok. Ashley answered; the call was broadcast through the small speakers in the pod, so everyone could hear Joker.

Ashley asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to; "Joker! You made it out alive! Shepard's alive!" A few moments of silence occurred, then the crippled pilot forced out his response, "Shepard's…well he's…dead…I saw him, he…got spaced." As these words were muttered, the excitement that had risen died as quickly as it had arrived.

Immediately the room went silent, no one could believe or accept it. Shepard had helped them all, done his best to ensure their safety; he was a good friend of everyone on the Normandy. It couldn't be true, he couldn't be dead, everyone had thought the same thing on the Presidium Tower, but he survived. The same had to be true now, right?

No matter how much she tried to deny it, a voice inside her knew the truth, _"He couldn't survive being spaced, even if he didn't die from the explosions, by now he probably suffocated." _However, Tali wasn't going to let that part of her win, "No, he can't be dead. He can't be, turn this thing around, we need to go get him."

Ashley turned to Tali and choked out her reply, "I don't want to accept it either, but we can't turn around. This escape pod has just enough resources to get us to safety, and we need to get away from the Normandy, debris or that ship could kill us too."

Tali shook her head, _"They have to turn around, Shepard was alive! He was… he… was… he… wasn't. He promised..."_ Once again Tali pushed away those thoughts and turned to Liara and Garrus, they would agree, "Come on, Shepard is alive! We **have** to turn around! We…we can't just leave him to die!"

Since they had been on the Normandy, Tali had bonded with Garrus more than Liara or Ashley, which made it all the more devastating when he stood up and quietly said, "No…he isn't alive…he can't be. I'm so sorry Tali." Garrus was actually the only one who could say this, Liara was sobbing silently, and Ashley was holding back tears in a similar manner to Tali.

Tali continued to stare at Garrus, and then she looked down and collapsed down onto a seat. He was dead; there was nothing she could do. As Garrus sat down and stared at the walls of the escape pod, Tali turned off the sound output of her mask, so that no one could hear her. With this in mind, she put her head in her hands and began to sob for her lost love.

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Please review.


	2. Depression

Alright so I am planning on trying to upload a Chapter every day or two. Hope you enjoy!

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It had been a week since Shepard died, or was it two? Who cares? For Tali, time had just stopped the moment Joker had said that Shepard was spaced. She hadn't slept or eaten right since then, and she knew that neither had Joker, Garrus, Liara, or Ashley. Wrex had come to Citadel as well, Shepard's funeral was soon and the krogan wasn't going to miss it.

Wrex never talked about himself, but she could tell he was grieving for Shepard too, Shepard had refused to shoot him when he had the chance on Virmire, and that was after he had gone out of his way to retrieve Wrex's family armor. Shepard was like family to him.

Ashley hadn't changed anything, soon she would be assigned to a new post, she was just going to move on, with the praise Shepard had given her before he died, she was most likely going to get a promotion, but for now she just grieved, cried, and prayed in private.

Liara had no idea what she was going to do, she didn't want to go back to archeology, but she wasn't concerned with getting a job, she spent her time crying her eyes out. Shepards death impacted everyone, but Liara's grief was one of the most apparent.

Wrex wasn't crying, or isolating himself, he was just there for the funeral and the occasional drink. To a random observer, it looked like nothing had happened. To his closer friends, it was clear that the krogan was mourning the dead man in his own way.

Joker blamed himself that Shepard had died saving him, and the Alliance had grounded him. He just laid around and did nothing.

Chakwas was going to another post too, she was working at a clinic, so she didn't really stick around with the rest of the Normandy crew.

Garrus was the worst; he had gone to work for C-Sec again. He caught the criminals he needed to catch, but he disobeyed C-Sec policies and refused to file paperwork. Obviously, Executor Pallin was furious; Garrus told him to go to hell and got fired.

Since then he had been drinking heavily, once Tali walked in on his hotel room, and he had a pistol in his hands, silently examining the weapon. Tali had taken his pistol, he was screaming obscenities at her, but at least he hadn't killed himself, not yet anyway.

Tali just tried to go about her normal business, without Shepard or the Normandy she was going back to Migrant Fleet, she was preparing for that and talking with her Auntie Raan to try and keep her mind off Shepard.

This wasn't an easy task, especially since it was the geth data that Shepard had gotten for her that she was going to use as her pilgrimage gift. He was such a great man. He was perfect. Why did he have to die! Why couldn't he have just ran! It was moot now. He was dead. She had arranged to meet with the other squad members on the Normandy at Flux. She had to be going about now.

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Garrus was drinking at Flux, waiting for the others, Tali had been a pain in his ass, and there really wasn't a point to his life any more, he really had no idea why the hell he bothered to be there. Garrus took another gulp of his brandy, only to realize that it was empty, he slurred, "Doran, get me another."

He had been drinking for a while now, and the Volus bartender was moving slowly, so Garrus yelled, "Where the hell is my brandy you gas-sucking little freak?"

Doran looked at the turian, if Garrus could see the volus' face, Doran would probably look incredibly angry. "Where's the payment for the last drink?" Garrus growled, and Doran was just about to call security when a familiar female voice passed a credit chit over to Doran, "I'll pay for him, and I'll try and keep him out of trouble, just don't call security."

Doran took the chit, stared over at the drunken turian and sighed, "Alright, *wheeze* but make sure *wheeze* that he's under control or he'll *wheeze* be thrown out on his *wheeze* ass."

Garrus's blurred vision could just barely make out Tali handing the Volus a credit chit. She walked over to him, and helped him over to a booth, Garrus drunkenly mumbled "Get away, I'll do it myself," and stumbled the last few feet to the booth and took a seat. Tali looked at Garrus, there was no way the turian could talk, let alone get back to his hotel room, like this. With a sigh, Tali said, "I'm sorry for this Garrus," and stabbed a needle into his exposed, bony neck.

The turian yelped as Tali injected the detox into his veins, in a few minutes he would sober up, a welcome change from the past few days. As Garrus felt his throbbing head (the detox compound would also give him a hangover), Ashley and Wrex walked into the bar. Tali waved them over to the booth. As the duo sat down, Wrex motioned for some drinks to be sent over, Doran nodded. Wrex said in his booming voice, "Ha! Turian had too much to drink huh?" Garrus grabbed his head again, nodded, and said, "Yeah, yeah, just talk quieter." Tali looked at Garrus, she was honestly worried for him, he had become violent and angry since Shepard died.

Doran walked over with their drinks and placed them on the table. Garrus immediately reached for his, and Tali grabbed his arm, "Unless you want another needle in the arm, I suggest you cut down for the night." Garrus threw Tali's arm off his and muttered "Spirits, get the hell off my back." Ashley was about to interrupt them when she saw Joker walk in, supported by a red-eyed Liara.

They sat down, and once again Wrex motioned for Doran to bring more alcohol. Liara looked awful, she had obviously been weeping uncontrollably, and Joker looked like he just found out he had cancer. Liara barely sipped the drink Doran had brought (she wasn't really a drinker), and nodded at the group. Wrex lifted his drink and offered a toast, "To Shepard, the best person I ever knew." Everyone similarily lifted their glasses and muttered "To Shepard,"

Garrus looked up and stared, "Yeah, the best person we ever knew. And know what the hell is left? All they found on Alchera was his helmet! The greatest human to ever live, and all they found was** A FUCKING HELMET**!" By the time Garrus finished, he was standing. Wrex looked at Garrus, "Yeah...Shepard wouldn't have wanted to go out the way he did, he would've wanted to die in a glorious battle." Tali looked at the hulking krogan and said "No. You're entirely wrong. Shepard would've wanted to die with friends at his side and after a long life."

Wrex would have argued at any other time, but he knew that Shepard was close to Tali, so he kept it to himself. Joker chipped into the conversation, "Who cares how he wanted to die? He's dead!" The mood at the table immediately went dark

Liara stared at Garrus as the turian grabbed a glass of turian brandy, "Garrus, you think Shepard would want you getting drunk and trying to kill yourself?" Garrus slammed his glass onto the table and snarled, "What the hell do you know? Why the hell do you care?" Tali grabbed Garrus by the arm, "Keelah, Garrus, calm down, she just wants to help," Garrus shook off her arm and yelled "I don't need your god damn help!" Ashley and Wrex stood up, Ashley grabbed the turian by the neck this time, "Garrus, we're tired of your crap, get yourself together or get the hell out of here!"

Liara put her hand on Ashley and requested, "Ashley, don't hurt him. He needs help, not a beating." Wrex grumbled, "I'm not so sure." Garrus shoved Ashley away, "You're both wrong. I don't need help, and I don't need a beating. Not like you could give me one. Fuck you all."

Joker just discontentedly watched the events in front of him play out, honestly he didn't care. He had screwed up and killed the Savior of the Citadel, so he wasn't exactly concerned with the petty squabbles at this table. Garrus pushed his way out of the booth and left the bar in a rage, the crazy son of a bitch was either going to kill someone or get himself killed.

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It had been a week since the events at Flux. It was time for Shepard's funeral, and the whole crew of the Normandy had gathered. The whole thing was an embarrassment to Shepard's memory. It was small and pathetic, they were trying to play it down. The only attenders were the crew of the Normandy, Admiral Hackett, and the Council. The funeral was pathetic.

Tali stood with the Normandy's crew as the Council made their eulogy, it was pathetic. They didn't know him, they didn't care. Once again, Liara was sobbing, Garrus was somberly staring at the coffin, Ashley was holding back tears, Joker was blaming himself for Shepard's death, and Tali was still trying to attempt to accept Shepard's death.

When the Council was done, everyone went up to the coffin and said their goodbyes. They didn't even have his corpse. He was just floating out in space somewhere. Maybe seeing his corpse would help somehow. Give her closure. Or maybe it would send her over the edge.

She could barely go on anyway, seeing him dead might finish her off. Wrex muttered something about him being a good warrior, Ashley and Liara just stuck to simple goodbyes. Garrus didn't say anything. He seemed dead inside. Joker and Chakwas kept it basic as well.

After the mockery of a funeral the crew of the Normandy gathered again, this time on the Presidium. They were saying their goodbyes, Ashley was going to her next post, Joker was staying on the Citadel, he was grounded by the Alliance for the time being. Wrex was going back to Tuchanka, Tali was going back to the Migrant Fleet, and Liara was going to Illium. No one knew where Garrus was, ever since his blow up the turian had disappeared. Tali walked to the ship that would take her to the Migrant Fleet, she doubted that she could truly move on, but she could still help people. That's would Shepard would have wanted.

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Alright, so thanks for reading, please review.


	3. Pain

Alright, so one more chapter until we get into Mass Effect 2. Hope you enjoy this.

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The last two years had been hell. Without Shepard Tali's life was horrible. For so long now, she had spent nights mourning her lost love. She occupied herself with work on and for the Migrant Fleet, along with the occasional chat with Garrus.

Since his blow-up on the Citadel he had contacted Tali through the extra-net and apologized, he had done the same with the others, but he hadn't kept in contact with them. They had helped each other through their grief, and now Garrus was in charge of his own rogue police team on Omega.

Tali also hadn't kept in contact with the others, but she checked in a few months ago. Liara was an information broker, Ashley was still with the Alliance, and Wrex was trying to unite the krogan on Tuchanka. No one knew where Joker or Chakwas were.

Tali had made a few new quarian friends on the Neema, the ship she had joined. Getting accepted was easy, and she satisfied everyone's high expectations for her Pilgrimage. Her father, the father that never bothered to even **act** impressed at anything, had been proud of her. Yet another reminder of her loss, the only reason her father was proud was because Shepard had gone to get classified geth data, and then he was selfless enough to give her classified data!

Every day she tried to move on, and every day she failed. Despite her milestones so far, Tali still couldn't quell the pain in her heart. She told herself every day that things would get better, but she couldn't convince herself.

Only one thing forced Tali to wake up each morning; she would take back the quarian homeworld. Rannoch has been lost for 300 years. The geth stole it, and they would pay, Tali would assure it. Rannoch would belong to the quarian people once again.

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Garrus was screwed, "_H__eh, there've been so many times in the past two years that I've thought that."_ Since leaving the Citadel, Garrus had packed a sniper rifle, an armor suit, and some turian nutrient paste. From there, Garrus had made a name for himself on Omega as 'Archangel'. Just when all motivation to live had disappeared for the turian, he had found his salvation.

People had come to him, wanting to join him in his crusade to fight justice. Over time he had assembled a team of powerful soldiers, engineers, and biotics. They had disrupted mercenary activity whenever and wherever possible. They couldn't touch anyone on the team though, anyone stupid enough to wander into the area where Garrus' team was set up would be met with sniper rifles, gunfire, and explosives. It was clean, it was perfect.

Then one son of a bitch decided to get greedy. Sidonis. He told the mercenaries where to find the people on the team, and then he bolted, but not before luring Garrus away so he couldn't even die with them, let alone save them.

That was just a few hours ago. Now Garrus just kept up the work his team used to do, killing mercs and blowing up drug shipments. Spirits, how he wished Shepard was alive; how he had never come to Omega, how he had never formed his team. The horror of seeing the charred remains of his teammates still haunted him every time he closed his eyes.

When Shepard died he had tried to kill himself, first by drinking enough alcohol to get a krogan on his ass, then by a pistol that Tali had grabbed when she walked in on him. Now he wished that Tali had never walked into that room, if he was dead he would feel so much better. Death was his only comfort, first Sidonis' then his.

Revenge clouded his mind, as soon as Sidonis was dead, Garrus would join his men. He still talked to Tali sometimes; those were the only things that he would miss. Until he found Sidonis, it was time for yet another attack on the mercs, he had a schedule, first Eclipse, then Blood Pack, then the Blue Suns and that bastard Tarak.

The mercs had killed his men, now he would kill each and every one of theirs. God damn, Sidonis, the Blue Suns, Eclipse, Blood Pack; he had a lot of people on his revenge list. "Huh, well I might as well start working on that," said Garrus as he popped a thermal clip in his sniper rifle and aimed it at the troops that would make up the next wave of enemies.

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Liara flipped through a digital packet on her omni-tool; she was hoping she could use the data retrieved from a raid on one of the Shadow Broker's bases to locate the Shadow Broker. The mysterious information broker had stolen one of Liara's close friends, Feron was gone. At least he wasn't dead, like Shepard.

Well, hopefully he wouldn't be dead for long. She didn't tell any of her old friends from the Normandy, but she had given the remnants of Shepard's body to Cerberus. She didn't trust Cerberus, but they would have the resources to fulfill their promise.

They had promised to bring Shepard back to life, and Liara felt the need to comply. If Shepard did come back, what would he think, how would he feel about being given to a terrorist organization? He would hate her. She could deal with that, he might not like it, but the world was a mess and the Reapers were coming. He needed to come back. Maybe if she was lucky, he would understand why she had to do this.

When Shepard died, Liara was a wreck, but with two years to mourn she had reached stability, not something that could be said for all of Shepard's friends. Everyone was devastated by Shepard's death, but Liara's grief was the most obvious.

Like Shepard, Joker and Chakwas were now members of Cerberus. She had been disappointed, but she understood, she had given in to Cerberus, and so had they. Joker had been grounded by the Alliance, and Chakwas was permanently assigned to a hospital, so they had both left. Joker had never gotten over Shepard's death, no one had, but Joker was unable to bother to hide it or try and work past it. Chakwas had seen lots of marines die, Shepard was a great man, but Chakwas knew how to deal with grief, she was more or less fine.

Liara had an apartment, a successful business, and a reputation. She was doing more or less fine too. And once Shepard got back (she still couldn't believe that he was returning, no matter how many times she said it to herself), and she took down the Shadow Broker and saved Feron, she would truly be fine. There were a lot of things that were going to return soon, the time in between was just preparations and fine tuning.

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Wrex watched as a varren pounced on the clan chief's face. He could never kill a member of another clan, not due to any morality crap, but because it would be too cruel, too violent for a clan chief, especially one from Clan Urdnot.

As the clan chief let out the last pitiful whimpers, the last sounds he would ever make, Wrex walked away, the varren was a pet of members of another clan. He had expelled the chief's clan from the alliance centered around Clan Urdnot.

Then he had just waited for other clan members to kill the chief, then the clan members. It had been two years since he reached the position of clan chief. He had to beat the crap out of his brood-brother, Urdnot Wreav, before Wreav would give in and forfeit the position.

He had been dropped off by the Normandy at the Citadel, and then he took a ship to Tuchanka. A few months later, after he had learned about Shepard's death, Wrex went back to the Citadel. If it was for any other person, Wrex would have stayed on Tuchanka.

However, Shepard was like a brother to him, he had went out of his way to get Wrex's meaningless family armor, he had treated him like a cohort instead of a savage dumbass, and he had implanted a new belief in Wrex's head that the krogan could be saved.

When Wrex returned, he did so with memories of his conversations with Shepard in his head. These chats had given Wrex reassurance that the krogan were more than beasts, and now they did so again. It was with this renewed enthusiasm (well, it **was** Wrex, so not quite enthusiasm) that Wrex began uniting the clans and creating diplomacy throughout the clans.

Two years later, the clans were still full of raving idiots, like that mauled dumbass back there, and Gatatog Uvenk, but at least they had agreed to work together. When the Reapers came, the krogan were going to be needed, and they would need to be united beyond that for the salvation of their species.

Without Shepard, Wrex never would've believed that the krogan could be redeemed; he would have left them to rot. But now the krogan were one step closer to being able to be cured by the Genophage, without proper leadership the krogan would try and kill everything in sight if they were cured.

Shepard had given the krogan another chance. On Virmire, Shepard had given Wrex another chance, he had always believed in Wrex. Now Wrex would prove that Shepard hadn't screwed up by letting him live.

* * *

Ashley slammed her hand into the table in front of her, the defense towers just wouldn't calibrate! She sighed and decided to take a small break. She had been promoted to Operations Chief over the last two years. She doubted she would've been able to get to a higher rank then Gunnery Chief if she hadn't been part of the team that took down Saren.

She owed so much to Shepard, and she never got to repay him. At least he would never be forgotten, there were monuments to him all around, Elysium, Torfan, a small one was on the Citadel.

She was hurt by Shepard's death, but while she would never forget him, she had to move on. She was still in the Alliance when Shepard died, so she kept up with that. Mission after mission, and then she finally got a promotion, and then she got another.

She didn't keep in touch with the other crew members, thought it would just aggravate old wounds, remind her and them of the man that had been lost. Everyone had taken Shepard's death badly, no reason to bring that back.

Ashley was stationed on Horizon, helping the colony build up, get defenses and set up better communications. Most of them hated her, but regardless of their opinions, this colony had to have better defenses.

Several human colonies had been attacked recently; every resident was kidnapped every time. There were a lot of theories, but messing with humanity was exactly like Cerberus' motives, who knew what they were doing with the colonists, but it wasn't good. Once she and Shepard- _"No, I'd rather not… No need to dwell on that… Yeah." _Ashley had to repress the memory, but suffice it to say Cerberus was full of sick bastards.

As Ashley finished her reflection of the past two years, she sighed. _"Alright, breaks over, time to get back to work," _Ashley stood up and started to continue her calibration of the defense towers. It was time to move on, actually it was time to move on two years ago. As she began her work, Ashley allowed one last thought about Shepard, _"Damnit, Skipper why did you have to die? This galaxy needs you. Your friends need you. Your name has lost meaning, and the Reapers are coming. The Alliance needs someone like you to help fight, the universe needs it."_

* * *

Please review, if you hate it I need to know why, if not tell me what to keep up.


	4. Resurrection

Alright, so we finally get into the thick of the story: ME2. Have fun. AND REVIEW.

* * *

As air rushed into his lungs, Shepard had just one thought, _"What the hell! This is a crappy heaven!" _As his vision began to clear, Shepard could see two figures, they were human. One was a bald man, the other was a woman. She seemed to be in charge, she was yelling something at the man.

As she talked Shepard could hear the beeps of medical equipment, but this place felt...off. He didn't think that it was a hospital. What the hell was going on! Why was he here! What happened! As he thought this over in his head he could hear the beeping of the machinery accelerating, that just increased the panic Shepard had set himself into.

Suddenly the woman leaned over and looked at him, told him to relax, and for some reason he decided to comply. As his heartrate slowed and he fell back into his slumber, he thought of just one thing, _"Is Tali okay?"_ Then came the darkness of sleep came and engulfed Shepard once again.

* * *

Miranda was pissed, Wilson had almost killed Shepard, and after two years there was no way in hell that Shepard was going to die again. The Illusive Man had told her to keep him alive at all costs, so that was what she was going to do. Project Lazarus was not going to fail. Well technically the project had already succeeded to a degree, but **she** wasn't Shepard. Cerberus needed Shepard, not some failed facsimile.

Under her orders Shepard was going to be watched for the next 24 hours to find any changes in his health. Unless he returned soon, another colony was going to be abducted. The Illusive Man had already briefed her on what had happened on the planets that were already hit. It wasn't good, someone had kidnapped every single colonist, The Illusive Man suspected the Reapers. He was probably right, but if there was any man that was going to be able to find out, it was Shepard.

Progress had been good, but he needed to be up faster,every moment wasted was another hundred colonists dead. There was no time for Miranda to take a break, despite Wilson and Jacob's insistance that she allow herself to slow down. Just a few more weeks and the scars would be patched up, the last of the injuries would be healed, and he would finally be able to start working for Cerberus.

There were a lot of reasons for Shepard to say no, but he would use the resources provided to save who he could, it was in his nature. He would rather risk his life (and lose it) then let a pilot die, he would work with Cerberus to keep thousands of colonists alive.

As Miranda walked into the room where the failed subject was kept she smiled, at least there was a backup.

* * *

The first thing Shepard heard after his wake-up was alarms blaring, accompanied with that woman talking over the intercom. As he felt his face, it hurt like hell, he could hear the woman saying "Shepard! Wake up! I know you're scars aren't healed yet, but we're under attack, you have to move! Grab your armor and weapons out of the locker!"

Shepard looked around, so those were scars on his face, and there was the locker! As Shepard equipped his armor and pulled out the pistol in the locker, surprisingly the armor was exactly like his N7 armor, but that was impossible, after all he was spaced and- the woman's voice interrupted , actually he had heard a name when he woke up...what was it...that's it!

The bald man was named Wilson, and the woman was Miranda! Anyway, Miranda had told Shepard to get behind cover, so he ran behind a waist-high counter just before an explosion burst through the door.

"Shepard, your pistol doesn't have a thermal clip, you need to find one." Shepard looked around, _"Wait, whats a thermal clip?"_ Miranda apparently guessed his question, "A thermal clip is a small red cylinder, you shove it in your gun, then eject it when your weapon gets overheated. Now find one and keep going!"

Shepard was about to give up, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a thermal clip on the ground; he grabbed it and shoved it in his pistol, then ran to the next room.

He still had no idea what the hell was going on, but apparently he needed to shoot the mechs. _"Mechs…the geth? No, it was common knowledge that they weren't just mechs, so what was Miranda"- _he was cut off by one of the doors in the room he was in opening. Several humanoid machines walked out, oh so **that** was what Miranda was talking about.

He had no idea how powerful these things were, he had to be cautious. He ducked next to a waist-high rail and checked his pistol. _"Alright, so how does this work…ah this isn't so different, the only major thing is the thermal clip…" _

Shepard popped out of cover and blew off one of the four mech's 'head'. The other three looked at him, then started firing; Shepard started running across the room, dodging bullets as he went. He was now in melee combat range, so he blew another mech's head off and punched the third one into the fourth. To any normal man, that would have hurt like hell, but Shepard's armored gloves kept him from getting hurt.

A few quick shots into both mechs put them down, and now Shepard had a fair idea of what his opposition was going to be like. A short time later, Shepard had walked into a room that had some research logs and a wall safe. Shepard activated the audio logs and started going to work on the safe, _"Well…no one is coming for it now." _

He had just opened the safe and gotten some credits from it when he finished listening to the audio logs. They had described how Miranda and Wilson had…rebuilt him. So…he was dead, or was that some sort of…he needed answers and he wasn't going to find them in that room.

Up ahead there was a window looking into a hallway where another mech was, this one was much bigger and it seemed to be much more heavily armored and equipped. Shepard's suspicions were confirmed when a man, he looked like a scientist of some sort, walked into the mech's path, then got splattered against the wall when the mech fired a rocket at him.

Yet another death upon Shepard's conscious. Shepard pushed it out of his head and moved through the next few rooms, blowing away all the mechs in his way. As Shepard opened the door to the next room with his pistol aimed at head-height, as the door opened he could see two humans, another man and another woman, not Miranda and Wilson. The man was dark-skinned and the woman was Caucasian, she had black hair and green eyes.

They were both behind cover, obviously the mechs were shooting at them from another platform, with a quick glance Shepard noticed that the platforms were separated by several yards. There was no walkway in between, it was inaccessible from the platform that Shepard and the other humans were on.

Shepard ran to join the others behind cover, then the man yelled in surprise, "Shepard! What the hell!" Shepard stared at the man for a second, _"He knows me? Why? What's going on!"_ The woman glanced at Shepard, then jumped up and scored a headshot on a mech. Jacob took a shot, then hunkered back down and said "Alright Shepard, I'm out of thermal clips, but I'm a biotic, give me the go ahead and I'll send them flying."

Shepard nodded, then said, "Ok, now!" just as he popped out of his cover and shot two mechs. The man sent the mechs flying in every direction and the woman stood up next, all three of them were taking out mechs.

In a matter of seconds, the mech force was decimated. Shepard holstered his pistol and the man said "Why are you up Shepard, thought you were still a work in progress?" Shepard narrowed his eyes a little, _"Work in progress? So that means…In a moment I'll find out." _Shepard nodded and calmly said, "I don't know. I just woke up. Anyway who are you? Do you know Miranda?"

The man smiled a little, then said "Yeah, sorry, I forgot about that. I'm Jacob Taylor. I've been stationed here to defend this station. And this," he gestured to the woman next to him, "is…uh…Cynthia. Anyway things must be worse than I thought if Miranda woke you up. I'll fill you in later."

Shepard grabbed Jacob by the shoulder and firmly said, "No. You can tell me the rest later, but for now I just need to know two things; what happened to me and who survived the attack on the Normandy?" Cynthia looked down and back up, "I…We…You died. When the Normandy was attacked you got spaced and died, then you burned up entering the atmosphere of Alchera. And as for the Normandy," as Cynthia said this, she looked definitively sad, "well… Most people got out. Pressly didn't, but don't worry," Cynthia looked back up with a smile, "Tali is safe, and so are Liara, Ashley, Wrex and Garrus."

Shepard nodded and smiled, _"At least most people are ok…But Pressly…He didn't deserve that. Wait, she seemed to know about Tali and me, and what was the 'I…We…You stuff?" _Shepard looked at Cynthia, "And who are you?"

Cynthia looked a little disoriented as she muttered, "Yeah…that's where things get complicated. You were dead for two years, Cerberus tried to bring you back. One of the first things they tried was cloning," Shepard's face contorted in horror for a moment, _"I'm…just a clone of Shepard? But I-" _Cynthia continued , "You're not a clone. You are the original Commander Shepard. "I'm…your clone Shepard."

I have your memories and your combat skills, so uh…Pleased to meet you, I'm Commander Cynthia Shepard." Shepard's eyes widened, he had a clone! He had been trained for years to not react in a situation where there was something to be done. So he was as surprised as Jacob and Cynthia to hear himself say, "What the hell! How is that possible!"

Cynthia glanced behind her, "Shepard, now isn't the time." Shepard stared at her, "I just returned from the goddamn dead, as far as I'm concerned I have enough time. You owe me a few answers." Cynthia sighed, "Okay, really quickly, they failed replicating the x and y chromosomes, but they managed to copy your memories, skills, and basic body structure and grow a body.

Shepard I'll tell you the rest later, for now we have to go unless you're eager to go back to the dead." Shepard reluctantly said, "Ugh, yeah okay." Jacob and Cynthia nodded and opened the door.

After a few moments of walking, Jacob heard something on his personal communicator, it was Wilson! Jacob set up the call so that only he could hear it, then started talking to Wilson. After a few moments, Jacob looked back at the two Shepards and said, "Wilson is in Server Room B, we've got to go!

After a dozen mechs and three rooms they found Wilson sitting on the ground in the server room, he had been shot. Shepard looked down on the man and said, "You were there when I woke up." Wilson looked up with a grimace and muttered "Yeah, that was me. Those bastards shot me in the leg, so I'm kind of bleeding here. Could you just get me some medi-gel?" Wilson gestured to the wall; there was a medi-gel dispenser there.

After Shepard hastily applied a medi-gel to Wilsons's leg, Wilson slowly got up and muttered, "Ugh…I never thought you would save **my** life Shepard. Guess that makes us even. I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs, but whoever did this fired the whole system. Completely irreversible. Shepard nodded, "Well we should be okay.

Let's just stick close and we can get out of here alive. Everyone nodded and they kept going, decimating wave after wave of what Wilson and Jacob had informed the Shepards were LOKI Mechs.

At the entry to the hanger, where the team could leave the station, Wilson was hacking the door while Jacob, Cynthia, and Shepard were standing guard. All three soldiers turned around when Wilson opened the door, only to see Wilson get shot, and by his co-worker, Miranda.

Shepard and Cynthia immediately aimed their pistols at the newcomer, Jacob just looked down at the dead man, "What the hell are you doing Miranda!" Miranda looked back up from the corpse, and coolly replied "My job, Wilson betrayed us all."

Shepard and Cynthia glanced at each other, Shepard said "No matter how sure you are, he didn't deserve that welcome," while Cynthia just angrily said "If he betrayed us we needed to question him!" The Shepards looked at each other again, and Miranda said "He sabotaged the security systems, killed my staff, and he would have killed all of us. He didn't deserve any better welcome, and he didn't deserve to be interrogated."

Shepard took a moment before accepting that, "If you say so… What's our next step," and he put his pistol away. Miranda gestured behind her, "We need to take this shuttle away, to another Cerberus base. My boss will want to speak to you. Both of you." Cynthia asked, "The Illusive Man? We know that you're Cerberus."

Miranda frowned, "Ah Jacob, I should've known that your conscious would get the better of you." Jacob looked at Cynthia, "Lying to the commander…or…commanders...isn't the way to get them to join our cause." Miranda sighed, "Well, since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything that you want to ask before we leave Shepard, Cynthia?

Shepard smiled, finally some answers, "Yeah we've got a lot of questions. Lets discuss it in the shuttle."

* * *

So here I did a few firsts, my first action scene (fighting the mechs), the introduction of Cynthia Shepard and the introduction of Miranda and Jacob. So I think this was a good chapter, so review please. I also was thinking about other pairings for the series, so if you've got anything that doesn't include Garrus, Cynthia, John, or Tali, add it in a review.

And don't forget to comment on how I did in the fighting sequences, I need feedback on that.


	5. Interruptions

Yeah so...I've got nothing to say...Enjoy? How 'bout dem baggy pants? Oh yeah, REVIEW OR I KILL YOU!

* * *

Shepard and Cynthia had arrived at a top-secret Cerberus base (well they were all top-secret, but still) and they were minutes away from meeting the head of Cerberus, the Illusive Man. Miranda wasn't exactly hospitable to anyone, and because Jacob was more or less a soldier, he stayed formal, polite, and respectful.

The shuttle ride was particularly long, so after the quizzes to test Shepard's memory and see what parts of Cynthia were borrowed from Shepard; eventually they had gotten to learn about Jacob and Miranda's history. Jacob was an Alliance man before he joined Cerberus, and Miranda was genetically engineered to be perfect by her father, and then she ran away from him to Cerberus. It was very hard to pry that information out of her, but with two Shepards, it wasn't impossible.

Both Shepard and Cynthia had the opportunity to get some armor from Cerberus, there were a lot of options, Terminus Armor, Blood Dragon Armor, Inferno Armor, but Shepard decided to stick with his classic N7 armor. Cynthia took a different direction, and picked out the Kestrel Armor from the armory. After she had suited up and left behind her crappy armor (Cerberus didn't feel like springing for N7 armor for a failed clone) the duo was summoned to go meet the Illusive Man.

Neither of them was inclined to be joining Cerberus in its endeavours, they both remembered Cerberus' sick experiments, on their people, on rachni, they just didn't care. However, if Cerberus was going to spend two billion credits to bring Shepard back to life, he would bother to meet with them, Cynthia was already pissed at Cerberus though, they had made her, and they were ready to ditch and kill her, she thought that Cerberus could all go to hell.

Shepard and Cynthia walked into the room together, only to see some sort of quantum entanglement communicator, they stepped into the circle and it booted up, showing them a full visual of the Illusive Man and the room he was in. The room had sun in the backround, it was the only lighting in the room; it was simply majestic.

The meeting was painful. The Illusive Man was a bastard. To be expected from a terrorist organization, but still. He treated Cynthia like a failed experiment.

"I'd be disappointed if I could persuade you that easily; you can go see for yourself. I have a shuttle prepared to take you to Freedom's Progess, the latest colony to be abducted. Miranda and Jacob will brief you."

Shepard was satisfied, but Cynthia wanted to know something, "Is this a volunteer job, or are we being volunteered?" Once again, The Illusive Man was obviously displeased to see the mere clone talking. With a noticeable amount of venom in his tone The Illusive Man responded, "You always have a choice...Cynthia is it? If you don't find the evidence we're both looking for, we can part ways. But first, go to Freedom's Progress. Find any clues you can. Who's abducting the colonies? Do they have any connection to the Reapers? I brought you back, it's up to you to do the rest."

As the quantum entanglement communications device powered down, Cynthia and Shepard walked out of the room. Cynthia was obviously pissed, but Shepard knew that she would get over it. As Shepard and Cynthia reached Miranda Shepard said "Alright, Miranda, Jacob, we have a mission to a human colony, Freedom's Progress. Get ready to leave, we get on the shuttle in fifteen minutes."

* * *

It had been half an hour since the team had left on the shuttle, and it had been a mostly dull ride. Miranda had already briefed him on the events of the past two years, the attacks on the colonies, and she had done a psychological evaluation on him to make sure he was alright. Jacob had informed them of the changes in weaponry.

The most interesting thing by far though, was the omni-blade. It was an experimental model, much more effective then the last editions (the last editions could barely cut steak, let alone damage armor), but it was ridicoulously expensive, Cerberus was able to get one for Shepard though. There was just one more issue, and Shepard wanted to clear it up before they landed. "Alright, if we find any colonists, we need to make sure that they get out alive, got it?"

Jacob nodded, while Miranda decided to explain, "Shepard there weren't any colonists around at any of the other colonies that were hit. But, if we do find any colonists, we'll make sure they get out alright."

They were finally there, everyone jumped out, and pulled out their guns. The place was a ghost town, but they needed to be ready in case of an ambush. It looked like everyone was dragged off in the middle of dinner. As they scanned the next few rooms, looking for any indication of what happened to the colonists; all they found were a few mechs.

As Miranda pointed out, someone must have changed the mech's settings to be immediately hostile, and that meant someone was there. The oddest part about the colony was that there was no sign that there had ever been a fight, there was no structural damage, and no bodies.

After a trek across more of the colony, the team was ready to move on when they could distinctly hear voices in the next room. Everyone raised their weapons as Shepard opened the door and stormed in. The only occupants of the room were...quarians? Why were they on a human colony?

The moment the door was open, one of them noticed and turned around, aiming an assault rifle at the intruders. The quarian's allies quickly joined him. Thankfully, the confrontation was interrupted when another quarian walked up and said, "Prazza! You said you'd let me handle this!"

As the clearly female quarian turned to face Shepard she said, "Wait...Shepard?" Shepard recognized that voice, the woman that had it had been the most important thing in his life, he could only hope that she still was, "Tali? Lower your weapons!" Miranda and Jacob reluctantly put their guns down and Cynthia stepped forward.

Prazza apparently was deciding that an order for the lowering of weapons was a go ahead to be an asshole, "I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!" Tali angrily yelled, "Put those weapons down!" Then she turned again to look at Shepard and said with disbelief, "Shepard, is that...you're alive?" Shepard stared for a moment at the women before him, it felt like just yesterday that they had been together, but he knew that for her, it had been two whole years.

He tried to take this in mind as he said, "Yeah...Tali It's me...I got you that geth data, did it help your pil-" Tali snapped him out of his apology with a shout, "You were alive and you never told me! We...I..." By the end, Tali was close to crying, so Shepard thought he would at least get her some privacy, "Miranda, Jacob, stand guard outside, behind us. Prazza, get your men outside to stand watch on that entrance."

Prazza was going to argue. Shepard could tell; luckily he could tell that this was a private matter, and left. The idea that Shepard might shoot him might have been a motivator as well.

As soon as the others left, Cynthia put her arm around Tali in an attempt to comfort her. Tali whipped her head to stare at Cynthia and angrily said, "Could you go outside with the other two please?" At this Shepard jumped in, "Yeah well I think that you two should meet because, this is...Well this is a failed clone of mine, Cynthia Shepard."

Cynthia nodded and said, "Cerberus brought... John, back from the dead to investigate human colonies. This whole ghost town thing has been happening on numerous colonies. Tali was clearly confused, "Wait, so you're...his clone...and he's...back from the dead? So... you really did die two years ago?"

Shepard nodded and asked, "Cynthia could you join the quarians outside?" With a nod, she left. Shepard embraced Tali, "I'm... so sorry I was, uh, gone. But for me nothing has changed, it feels like just yesterday that we-" The moment was broken when Cynthia ran back in, "Sorry, Tali, John, but we gotta move! Prazza and his squad just bolted! They muttered something about getting someone called 'Veetor' before Cerberus could get him and ran!"

Tali broke away from Shepard and ran towards the door, right before leaving she turned and apologized, "Sorry John, we'll catch up later, but for now we've got to go! Take your soldiers and go after them! I'll take an alternate route, no matter what, they **can't** get there first!" With that she left, and Shepard turned around to open the door to where Miranda and Jacob were still vigilantly watching for any threats.

"Alright, the quarians ran, we have to catch up to them, let's go!" The two Cerberus operatives followed Shepard and Cynthia as they ran after the quarians. After running across a section of the colony and blasting their way through an assortment of hostile LOKI Mechs and turrets, they finally reached their goal. The door that, according to Tali; would reveal the rogue marine squad being decimated by a YMIR Mech, one of the monstrous machines that had ravaged the Cerberus base that the team had escaped from.

Once Miranda and Jacob were on the sides of the door, Tali opened it from her position. The sight behind the door was horrific. There were the corpses of the quarians scattered around, and they had just walked in on time to see Prazza get ripped apart as the YMIR Mech's machine gun sent bullet after bullet into the quarian. Shepard reacted to the situation by ordering his soldiers into cover. That mech was powerful, but Shepard had faced worse.

Cynthia was hiding behind the same crate as Shepard, and it was then that Shepard had an idea, "Alright, Cynthia, just get it's attention and don't get shot, I'll get behind it. Go!" Cynthia popped her thermal clip and responded, "Alright, on three, two, one," on one she burst from her cover and sprayed the mech with assault rifle fire. As the hulking menace turned, Shepard ran out of his cover and got behind it. Then he jumped onto it's back and activated his omni-blade; stabbing the mech once through the ocular output, then cutting off it's 'head' entirely.

The mech hadn't lost all operational capacity however, working from 'memory' the mech was still firing in front of it. With a swift swipe, Shepard sliced off the machine gun, then the rocket launcher that the mech had attached to it's arms. As it began to power down, Shepard rolled backwards, off the now useless mech, and pulled out his grenade launcher, subsequently firing a shot at whatever was left of the mech.

With a violent explosion, shards of the machine flew skywards as the grenade detonated. Tali had been helping the injured quarians in a nearby building, but now she walked out and over to Shepard. "Alright Shepard, we need to get Veetor, he must be in there." Tali pointed towards a small building behind Shepard, and started walking towards it. Cynthia followed Shepard and told him, "I get the next big one."

Shepard nodded and followed behind her, as did the rest of his team. When the door opened, there was a quarian sitting in front of something like a dozen computer screens, a security or monitoring system. Veetor was just muttering gibberish about 'them' coming back. Shepard enabled his omni-tool to shut down the computers and waved his hand, disabling all the computers.

With all the computers disabled, Veetor turned around, stood, and stammered out, "You're human, where did you hide, why didn't they find you?" It was Miranda who asked "Who didn't find us?" The quarian nervously answered, "The...the monsters...The swarms...They took everybody."

The quarian was obviously traumatized, or at least delirious, but Shepard had to know more, "Why didn't the colonists fight back, Veetor? What happened?" Veetor turned around and ominously said, "You-you don't know, you didn't see, but I see everything."He pressed a button and all the screens booted up, it depicted security camera footage, from a while ago presumably. "Security footage, he must have pieced it together manually," Miranda commented.

Images of little bugs and some type of pod carried by strange aliens came into view. "What the hell are those!" Miranda exclaimed. As the video was backed up, she stared at the screen and muttered, "My god...I think it's a Collector." Shepard had heard about the Collectors, they usually worked through intermediaries and only came into contact with galactic civilization to make trades, often for their advanced technology.

No one knew anything about them, but now it looked like they had decided to interact with other races in a different way then trades, kidnapping. If the Collectors were somehow involved with the Reapers, it could explain what happened to the colonists. Jacob spoke up for the first time in a while, "The Collectors do have advanced technology, they could have a weapon that disables an entire settlement at once" Veetor explained what the little bugs were, "Seeker swarms, no one can hide, the seekers find you, freeze you. Then the monsters take you away.

Shepard peered at the screen _"So that's what those things are." _Shepard continued to study the image and said, "What happened next?" Veetor got a little more panicked as he said "The monsters took the people onto the ship, and they left! They ship flew away, but they'll be back for me! No one escapes!"

Jacob was obviously losing faith in the traumatized quarian, "I think that's all we're getting out of him, Commander." As much as Shepard needed more info, Veetor was obviously too scarred by the attack to provide more information at this point, so he smiled and said, "We appreciate what you told us, you were very helpful." Veetor seemed to barely notice the Commander or his allies as he continued, "I studied the monsters, the swarms.

I recorded them with my omni-tool. Lots of readings. Electro-magnetic. Dark Energy." Dark energy and electro-magnetic readings weren't good. Whatever was going on must be involving incredible power. Miranda apparently agreed, because she said "We need to get this data to the Illusive Man. Grab the quarian and call the shuttle to come pick us up."

Shepard didn't think of himself as ethically perfect, he had made mistakes in his past, but ever since Torfan he had tried to done the best to stick to his morality. There was no way in hell that Shepard was kidnapping this quarian; especially not for a bunch of terrorists. Just after Miranda spoke, an angry Tali walked in and said "What? Veetor is injured! He needs treatment, not an interrogation."

Jacob calmly responded, "We won't hurt him, we just need to know if he knows anything else. He'll be returned unharmed." While Jacob would stay true to his word to the best of his ability, Cerberus didn't share Jacob's morality. If a pro-human terrorist organization got their hands on Veetor, the quarian would be lucky to get out alive. Cerberus wasn't known for being sentimental or truthful.

Miranda begged to differ, "Your people tried to betray us once already. If we give him to you, we'll never get the intel we need." This was a life! This wasn't about intel! Tali looked at Shepard as he turned from Miranda to look at her, "Prazza was an idiot, and his men paid the price for it. You're welcome to take Veetor's omni-tool data, but please, just let me take him."

The idea that Tali thought that Shepard had changed enough to give Veetor to Cerberus was insulting, she truly believed that he had changed. For him it had been about a week since he died, he hadn't changed. If anyone had changed it was Tali, although Shepard really couldn't expect anything else, it had been two years.

He had just hoped that she wouldn't change enough that she had entirely moved on from...him. But that was selfish, and something for later. Right now he had to make a decision, and it was an easy one; so he turned to Miranda as soon as Tali had asked the question and said "Miranda, he's obviously traumatized, he needs medical care. If I turn him over to Cerberus I doubt that he'll survive. Tali will give us his omni-tool and take him back to flotilla." Miranda reluctantly submitted, "Understood, Commander."

Tali looked relieved as she said, "Thank you Shepard, I'm glad you're still the one giving the orders. If I find anything out there that can help you, I'll let you know." Shepard walked over to her, "You can let me know even if you don't find anything. Even without finding anything, you still may be able to help me." Tali giggled just a little before stopping herself.

Jacob notified the shuttle of the mission's status, "We're ready for pickup." As Tali walked out with Veetor, Shepard grabbed her arm and said "Tali... I mean it. Keep in contact... we uh, haven't had a chance to catch up yet." Tali nodded once and left as Shepard turned back to look at the images on the screens.

Cynthia smiled and said to Shepard, "Well it was nice to see her. I bet you just wished that this hadn't been on a mission though." At least he had gotten to see a familiar face, he really needed that now. He could only hope that they did manage to keep in touch. But for now, it looked like Shepard had a mission to start.

* * *

As Shepard and Cynthia walked into the next room they already knew the outcome of the meeting. Cerberus was willing to acknowledge this new threat, and obviously neither the Alliance nor the Council was willing to pay attention. If they cared, they would have sent something, anything, to investigate the colony. But in the three hours that they had been monitoring the colony, it was clear both that the Alliance hadn't come, and that they weren't going to; or if they were, they would be too late to help.

They had no alternative, if they wanted to help, which they both did, then they needed to work with terrorists. Shepard had been thinking of ways to try and avoid the inevitable. Cynthia, on the other hand, had been thinking of ways to destroy Cerberus once they had been given Cerberus resources.

The quantum entanglement communications device booted up, and the last man in the galaxy that Shepard wanted to see was sitting in front of him, smoking another cigarette. The leader of Cerberus greeted the appearance of the duo; "Shepard...Good work on Freedom's Progress."

It was painfully obvious that the Illusive Man was still annoyed that the 'experiment' had managed to make it out of the labs alive. The Illusive Man continued, "The quarians forwarded their findings on Veetor's debriefing. No new data, but it's a surprising olive branch, considering our history.

You and I have different methods, but I can't argue with your results." Shepard had no idea what had happened between the quarians and Cerberus, but since Cerberus was basically a human supremacist group, it couldn't be good. Cynthia sarcastically replied, "You ever think about playing nice once in a while?"

The Illusive Man obviously had a retort for everything, he dryly responded, "Diplomacy is great when it works, but difficult when everybody already perceives you as a threat." Shepard rushed to the defense of his 'sister', "Yeah, maybe that wouldn't be a problem if Cerberus weren't terrorists." The Illusive Man glared at both of them, and returned to the main point, "That's not important. What's important right now is that you've confirmed that the Collectors are behind the abductions."

Shepard sighed, "Why do I get the feeling you knew about them already?" Both Shepard and Cynthia were quickly growing tired of this smug bastard's lies and manipulation; but they still (barely) bothered to listen when the Illusive Man explained; "I had my suspicions, but I needed proof. The Collectors are enigmatic at best. They periodically travel to the Terminus Systems, looking to gather seemingly unimportant items or specimens. Usually in exchange for technology. When their transactions are complete, they disappear as quickly as they arrived; back beyond the unmapped Omega 4 Relay. Until now we've had no evidence of direct aggression by the Collectors."

Shepard crossed his arms and asked, "You're holding something back...again. How are the Reapers involved?" The Illusive Man answered slowly, "The patterns are there. In the data. The Council and the Alliance want to believe that the Reaper threat died with Sovereign two years ago. People like you and I know better. We can't wait until the Reapers are on the march; we need to take the fight to them." Despite all the differences between the Illusive Man and Shepard, the two agreed on the one issue that could force the two to work together.

With painful resignation in his tone, Shepard submitted, "Alright. If this is war though, I'll need an army, or a really good team. No matter what people believe, I can't take down another Reaper with just me, Cynthia, Miranda, and Jacob. The Illusive Man had already researched the options here, "I've already compiled a list of soldiers, scientists, and mercenaries. You'll get dossiers on the best of them. Finding them and convincing them work with you could be challenging, but you're a natural leader...both of you. I'll continue to track the Collectors. When they make their appearance, I'll notify you and your team. Be ready."

Before he could consider the selfish nature of his comment, Shepard blurted out "Keep your list, I want the people I trust-the ones that helped me stop Saren and the geth." That was two years ago, Commander. Most of them have moved on...or their allegiances have changed." Shepard immediately regretted what he said, of course they've moved on. It's been two years; I would've forced myself to move on too.

"Okay, I get it. They're not available." Shepard knew that the Council wouldn't help him, they never would, and they never will. Shepard understood, the Council dictated the lives of trillions; they couldn't take things, anything, on faith, from anyone. Which left him with just one option, which the Illusive Man expressed, "You'll get who you need from the dossiers; you're a leader, Shepard.

Cynthia smirked, "Alright. You worry about the Collectors; we'll make sure that the team is ready." The Illusive Man took this opportunity to downplay the clone's role; "Just to be clear, Shepard is in charge, Miranda's his XO. You're lucky to be a crew member, so make sure you understand where you are. Now, two things before you go. Find Mordin Solus on Omega, he's a brilliant salarian scientist, if anyone can create an antidote to the seeker swarms, it's him." Shepard nodded, "Fine, what else?" With yet another drag off of his cigarette, the Illusive Man replied, "I've found a pilot I think you might like. I hear he's one of the best. Someone you can...trust."

As the QED powered down, yet another familiar voice greeted Shepard and Cynthia, "Hey, Commander. Just like old times, huh?"

* * *

Alright so I was going to upload pictures of my Shepards, but I can't find a way to show those, so let me know if you have a way. I know that Cynthia is sort of a background character here, but once Garrus comes along (in a chapter or two) they'll both become much more prominent. QED is for quantum entanglement device, and I am planning on making it so that there are four people on each mission. Oh, and there will be others on the mission too. GARRUS COMES NEXT! WHOO! Anyway, please review!


	6. New Beginning

So I hope you enjoy. REVIEW!

* * *

Joker had been leading Shepard and Cynthia for a few minutes; where, they didn't know. Fortunately, Joker had been with Cerberus for a few weeks, so Shepard didn't have to explain the whole 'clone' thing. They had just been talking about what they had done in the past two years; naturally neither Shepard nor Cynthia had much to contribute to the conversation.

Now they came to the elephant in the room, or rather, the hallway. "I can't believe it's you Joker…but I've just got to ask, why Cerberus?" As Joker continued to limp down the hall he replied, "Look who's talking, I saw you get spaced. The Alliance grounded me; they took away the only thing that mattered to me. Hell yeah I joined Cerberus."

Joker never trusted anyone quickly, so him working for Cerberus was surprising. Shepard didn't even trust him; and Shepard gave giant plant-monsters chances, "You really trust the Illusive Man?" As the trio stopped at a window, Joker said "I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do, but they aren't all bad. Saved your life. Let me fly. And there's this. They only told me last night."

As Joker finished, lights turned on the hanger one by one, revealing a majestic new ship (unfortunately covered in Cerberus logos, but it **was** technically their ship), looking almost identical to the old Normandy.

Working with Cerberus had its perks, Shepard couldn't deny. Neither Joker, Shepard, nor Cynthia could pull their eyes away from the beauty before them, the replication of one of the most important items in their lives. Joker broke the silence, "It's good to be home, huh, Commander?" With a grin, Cynthia said, "I guess we'll have to give her a name." There was no alternative; they all knew what to name her.

* * *

After everyone had boarded the Normandy, John and Cynthia still lingered right outside the entrance to their new home. After several minutes of silence John spoke to Cynthia, "So, we haven't talked about this…you sure you want to go?"

With a sigh Cynthia responded, "You know the answer. You don't want to go, and I don't either. But we have a duty to finish this, because no one else can. There's nothing I'd like more then to try and go live a civilian's life; but hey, having an extra Shepard could really be helpful."

John knew she was right, if he thought that someone else could minimize the casualties and do his job, he would get the hell out of there. But the Shepards had a duty to serve; John's father Alexander Shepard had served until his death on Elysium, according to the extra-net his mother Hannah Shepard was still serving in the Alliance, and now his 'sister' was going on a suicide mission with him. Hell, all missions against the Reapers are suicide missions.

Shepard silently looked up, "Alright…we have to get started, let's go." Cynthia went in first, Shepard took a few seconds to gaze at the exterior of his ship, and then he followed her in.

After a brief explanation of the workings of the new Normandy, and a quick tour, Shepard was introduced to the ship's AI, EDI. He didn't innately like having an AI on the ship, but if he was working for Cerberus, and employing mercenaries and convicts (the dossiers he had weren't exactly those of heroes), he needed to accept working with an AI. EDI hadn't given him any reason to distrust her, so he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Shepard's cabin was massive, at least, by the Alliance's standards. The first team member he was going to acquire was a mysterious figure on Omega by the alias of 'Archangel'. He was a vigilante, a figure of justice against the waves of crime on the desolate asteroid. Personally, Shepard thought that justice should be delivered the right way, otherwise you risk injuring civilians; and if you don't mind that you're more of a threat then those you try to kill.

All the casual clothes Cerberus had given him either made him look like a douchebag, or had the Cerberus logo on them. So in the end he just chose a simple uniform with SR-2 Patches on either arm.

Right now the Normandy was heading to Omega, after picking up 'Archangel'; Shepard had to recruit Mordin Solus, a brilliant salarian xenobiologist. Also, a mercenary by the name of Zaeed Massani was going to be waiting for the Normandy at Omega's docks. Three of the eleven people that the Normandy was going to take onboard would be on Omega, so it was the first stop.

Shepard had made his rounds and met the crew; there was Kelly Chambers, the psychologist, Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriel Daniels, the engineering crew (Shepard wasn't planning on going there again, it made him think of a certain quarian engineer), there was Doctor Chakwas, who had been very pleased to see the Commander again, and there was the toilet scrubber/cook Rupert Gardner.

That little comment made Shepard wish that the Alliance had developed a way to erase memories. Chakwas had given him a little advice, she said that stress and anger aggravated the cybernetic implants, so basically he had to stay positive to keep looking human.

Then of course, there was Joker. Shepard barely slept on the old Normandy, the realization that he was a zombie-cyborg brought back after two years didn't exactly help. Half the time Shepard spent in the deserted mess hall, the rest, with Joker and EDI in the cockpit. Cynthia was often up too, he was a zombie-cyborg, and she was a Cerberus clone. Things were so much simpler when it was just a team of ragtag soldiers rushing to stop the geth.

In a few hours, the Normandy would arrive at its destination and Shepard could begin his mission in earnest. With this in mind, Shepard went to his quarters to try and get some sleep. It would be nice if he had enough rest to avoid being shot.

Shepard was woken up by the alarm he had set for a few minutes before the estimated time of arrival. He quickly got ready, and loaded himself with the weaponry that he had on the Normandy. It was ridiculous how many and how powerful the weapons Shepard had were. He had loaded himself with one of every weapon, adding his omni-tool to that, he was an indisputable powerhouse.

Cynthia's load out was similar. Both of them used their armor commands to retract their helmets into their armor suit, and then went to wait by the airlock.

As the Normandy docked, the squad was prepared. Miranda and Jacob were coming with Shepard and Cynthia, they had insisted (well, Miranda had insisted, and Jacob just didn't want to get a lecture). As soon as the team stepped out of the Normandy, they could see a man mercilessly beating the shit out of a batarian.

As Shepard started walking to stop the violence, a salarian stepped in his way and said, "Ah! Welcome to Omega! You're new here aren't you? I can always tell. Allow me to-" The annoying salarian was interrupted by a batarian who had just walked up; the salarian started stammering out greetings but Moklan, as the salarian called him, wanted none of it.

He authoritatively demanded, "Leave Fargut. Now." Fargut cryptically responded, "Of course, Moklan! Whatever **she** wants!" Then Moklan waved the salarian away and Fargut ran. It wasn't a fast walk, the salarian straight out ran, almost as if, and probably really, for his life. Moklan must have a dangerous reputation, no one ran like that without a serious reason.

Moklan turned to Shepard and said in a deep, guttural voice "Blasted scavengers. Welcome to Omega… Shepard." Shepard had been alive for only a week and a half, was it already well known that he was alive again? Might as well ask, "You know who I am?" Moklan matter-of-factly said, "Of course, we've had you tagged since the moment you entered the Terminus Systems. You're not as subtle as you think."

Yeah, Shepard had heard that before, subtlety wasn't his specialty. No one ever remembered that he ran black ops missions back when he was in the Alliance during the war with the batarians.

Moklan cocked his head and continued, "Aria wants to know what brings a dead Spectre to Omega. I suggest you go to Afterlife now and present yourself." This batarian was starting to annoy Shepard, "Cut the attitude. I'm not here to cause problems for Omega." Moklan glanced at Shepard's companions, "Thing explode around you, Shepard. You can't blame Aria for keeping an eye on you. Afterlife. **Now.**" Shepard could have argued in several ways, but he didn't have the time. His thoughts returned to the batarian that was being beaten up at the end of the hallway.

As he walked over, the batarian rolled his head around a few times and pleadingly said, "Please…you have to help me." The man, he was a human man, stomped on the batarian once and said, "No one said you could talk, jackass." The sight was an immediate reminder of the lack of morality on Omega. Wait…that was Zaeed Massani, the mercenary from the dossier. "You Zaeed Massani?"

Zaeed turned around, his right eye was…wrong. He had scars across that side of his face. "Yeah. That's me. You must be Commander Shepard. I hear we have a galaxy to save." Shepard looked down at the batarian, and back up. With disgust for the mercenary in his voice, Shepard asked, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Zaeed threw a quick look back at the batarian and answered, "Batarian delinquent. Pissed off someone rich enough to hire me to go after him. And for my "bring 'em in alive" rates, even."

With another look at the batarian, Shepard realized that he wasn't innocent. He was a criminal. If he was being turned in alive, then he **didn't** have to throw Zaeed out an airlock. This definitely wasn't a good start though, "Alright, do whatever needs to be done. Be back here in twenty minutes, we've got a mission. I'll fill you in when we get back." Shepard extended his hand and said, "Good to have you, Zaeed. We have a lot to do."

Zaeed shook the Commander's hand and said, "Yeah, that's what they tell me. I've been briefed and payed. And I assume the Illusive Man told you about our arrangement?" Zaeed pulled out his pistol and gestured for the batarian to get up. _"Yet again, the Illusive Man leaves something important out."_

Shepard had combed all the dossiers for all the information they held, there was nothing about any 'arrangement'. "No, I guess he decided to leave that information out of the dossier." As the batarian stood up, Zaeed looked at Shepard and said, "Good thing I asked. Picked up a mission a little while back, just before I signed on with Cerberus. Thought you might be interested. You heard the name Vido Santiago? He's the head of the Blue Suns. Runs the whole organization."

Zaeed had gotten a little closer, and Shepard shook his head no. Zaeed accepted that and explained the mission, "Seems he recently captured an Eldfell-Ashland refinery on Zorya and is using the workers for slave labor. The company wants it dealt with." The Blue Suns were using workers as slaves? Shepard wasn't going to let that stand, and if he could secure Zaeed's loyalty by proving he was willing to go the extra mile, all the better,"I'll make sure we get that done."

With what looked like a faint grin of satisfaction on his face, Zaeed said, "Good. Get it out of the way so we can concentrate on being big goddamn heroes." The batarian was finally standing, the whole time he had been struggling to stand. Now he tried to run, not a good idea; Zaeed proved that by pulling out his pistol and shooting the batarian in the leg.

Zaeed's prisoner dropped to the ground and started moaning in pain. As Zaeed walked over to his prisoner, he said "I better turn this thing in before it starts to stink. I'll be locked and loaded in twenty minutes."

Shepard and his team started to walk through the nearest doors, into a plaza of some sort. EDI helpfully added to the conversation, "Shepard, I'm receiving quarantine warnings about the slums where Dr. Mordin Solus runs the clinic. Anticipate resistance at the transport station. I've also accessed messages between mercenary groups regarding plans to deal with Archangel. There's a recruiting station at Afterlife that may have information on him."

Shepard was about to pull up his digital map to find out where Afterlife was; but as the doors opened the first thing that could be seen was a giant sign that said "Afterlife". There was a significant line in front, but Shepard just cut to the front and told the batarian bouncer that he had business with 'Aria'. He opened the door and Shepard walked in. Immediately the music from the dance floor in the club could be heard, although only faintly.

As Shepard glanced around the hall leading the main part of the club, a batarian stood up, followed by two others, and said, "What are you looking at?" Shepard always tried to give people a chance before resorting to threats or violence; unfortunately he dealt with the scum of the galaxy so sometimes that was difficult. Nonetheless, if he could convince Saren to blow his brains out, he could stop a fight with an idiotic batarian.

"Don't you have something better to do than to pick fights with people you don't know?" The batarian wasn't backing off, his buddies pulled their guns out, and he said "No. Just the ones who get in my face." Cynthia walked forwards and asked, "You see our guns, do you really want to do this?" This guy was an idiotic, he didn't have a death wish though, he submitted, "I…Fine. You're off the hook. For now. See you around."

The team proceeded into the club, and Shepard quickly bought a Serrice Ice Brandy from the bar, he'd made a promise to Doctor Chakwas. Then he walked over to one of the guards at the bottom of a set of stairs and asked, "Where's Aria?"

The batarian gestured up the stairs, and Shepard walked up. Once Shepard reached the top, a purple asari who was facing the club told him, "That's close enough." All the bodyguards around the area aimed their weapons at Shepard; Jacob and Miranda pulled out their pistols too, anticipating a battle.

Shepard smirked a little; he could drop all these men if he had too. It wouldn't be too hard to kill them all. But, Shepard had no reason to cause a commotion in the club. And it wouldn't be the best way to greet Aria. The purple asari nodded, she was probably Aria, or one of her subordinates, and the bodyguards put their guns away.

The batarian directly in front of Shepard pulled out his omni-tool and gruffly said "Stand still." Shepard looked at the omni-tool for a moment, and then said "If you're looking for weapons, you're not doing a very good job." He pulled out his pistol, making sure to hold it in a non-threatening manner. The asari clarified, "Can't be too careful with dead Spectres. That could be anyone wearing your face."

Shepard took a moment to analyze the asari, "You're Aria? I was told that you're the person to talk to if I have questions." Aria took a moment to wait until the batarian said, "They're clean" and then she turned around. She looked at Shepard a moment, and said "Depends on the questions." She had several markings on her face; Shepard had to cut to the chase, "You run Omega?"

Aria chuckled, turned around, and, gesturing to the whole club, and said "I am Omega." She walked back and looked Shepard in the eye, then turned around and sustained her comment, "But you need more. Everyone needs more something. And they all come to me. I'm the boss, CEO, queen if you're feeling dramatic. It doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule."

Aria sat down onto a couch and explained, "Don't fuck with Aria." She smiled, as did Shepard, and he responded, "I like it. Easy to remember."

Aria gestured to her bodyguards and said, "If you forget, someone will remind you." The batarian who had been scanning Shepard went on, "And then I toss your sorry ass out the nearest airlock." They were four extremely well trained and powerful people. That wasn't happening. No point in rubbing it in though. Aria nodded and gestured for Shepard to sit down, which both he and Cynthia did.

Shepard asked a few basic questions, and eventually he got Aria to reveal that, as she said, "The local merc groups have joined forces to take him down. They've got him cornered, but it sounds like they're having trouble finishing him off. They've started hiring anybody with a gun to help them." Cynthia smirked, "Well, that's our way in." Aria gestured over to a room with a batarian guard and said, "They're using a private room for recruiting…just over there. I'm sure they'll sign you up."

Shepard relaxed into the chair a little more "I appreciate the help." Aria seemed amused as she responded, "See if you still feel that way when the mercs realize you're here to help him." Shepard smiled, "Well, I'll find out how a feel in a little while, for now I'm looking for Mordin Solus. Do you know where I can find him?" Aria looked a little puzzled for a moment as she provided, "The salarian doctor? Last I heard he was trying to help plague victims in the quarantine zone."

Aria's smile widened as she remarked, "I always liked Mordin. He's as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you." Alright, so one recruit is a vigilante, one is a mercenary, and one is a psychopathic doctor. Wonderful.

Aria had no qualms to disclose, "Used to be part of the Salarian Special Tasks Group. He's brilliant and dangerous." Aria observed, "Just don't get him talking. He never shuts up. If you really need to find him, take a shuttle to the quarantine zone. No guarantee they'll let you in, of course." As Aria finished, Shepard and Cynthia stood up, simultaneously saying, "Thanks for the information." Aria stopped looking at them, and sarcastically emphasized, "Yes. Just try not to bring the plague back with you."

The team gathered together and headed to the recruitment booth for killing Archangel. Shepard had no idea how to cure a plague, Mordin was a brilliant xenobiologist. "_He might even finish before Archangel has been recruited!" _With this is mind, Shepard walked up to the batarian in Blue Suns armor in front of the recruiting station and acknowledged, "I hear you're recruiting."

The merc recruiter took a moment to survey the four individuals before him and then pointed at the door and conceded, "Hmm. Why don't you step inside?" Opening the door revealed a batarian Blue Suns trooper signing people up, someone in beige armor was leaving as Shepard and his squad stepped in. The batarian took one look at Cynthia and Miranda and drawled, "Well, aren't you sweet? You're in the wrong place, girls. Strippers' quarters are that way."

Miranda's fists began to glow with biotics, the batarian didn't have long. Cynthia, however pulled out her pistols and challenged, "Show me yours, tough guy. I bet mine's bigger." The batarian studied the weapon for a moment and declared, "Impressive. So you're here to fight then?" Shepard and Cynthia shared a quick glance, and then Shepard returned, "You could say that."

The recruiter explained, "This is the place. Standard fee is 500 credits each. You get paid when the job's done. If you die, your friends don't collect your share. You'll need your own weapons and armor…looks like you've got that covered. And no, this does not make you a member of the Blue Suns, Eclipse, or the Blood Pack. You are a freelancer. Period. Any questions?" Shepard nodded, "Just one, where are we going?" The recruiter divulged, "Just head over to the transport depot outside the club. One of our boys will take you from there."

The batarian turned back to his console and demanded, "Send in the next one." Shepard's team turned around and started to leave. As Shepard left, a kid, really he couldn't be older than twenty five, walked in and asked, "Hey, is this where I sign up?" Shepard turned halfway around and commented, "You look a little young to be freelancing as a merc." The kid seemed really annoyed as he responded, "I'm old enough." Now the kid turned around and avowed, "I grew up on Omega. I know how to use a gun."

Shepard rolled his eyes and contended, "Archangel has been holed up in the same base for several days now, surviving wave after wave of trained, brutal mercs. I think he knows how to use a gun too." The kid got pissed and yelled in Shepard's face, "I can handle myself!" The kid pulled out a crappy gun, and continued, "Besides, I just spent 50 credits on this pistol, and I wanna use it!"

Shepard was tired of this idiot; he got in the kid's face and scolded, "Get your money back." Subsequently he grabbed the kid's pistol, much to the outspoken protest of the owner, and smashed it a few times. For a fifty credit pistol that would definitely break it. Shepard smiled and maintained, "Trust me, kid. You'll thank me later." He handed the broken pistol back, and walked away.

The team left the club and headed to the transport depot. As they passed by a view of Omega, Miranda spoke up, "Omega. What a pisshole. I've had to come here on business before. I feel like I need a shower afterward, in addition to normal decontamination." Cynthia looked around, "Yeah…I get that feeling too."

Shepard walked back to the hanger and grabbed Zaeed, he would be replacing Jacob on the mission.

As the team walked up, Shepard announced, "We're on the mission." The Blue Suns driver nodded once and confessed, "I hope you're ready. Archangel's been annihilating you freelancers." Shepard smiled and replied, "Ready when you are." The drive had been leaning lazily against his car, now he got up so he could head to the driver's side and commanded, "Get in." Shepard got in the passenger seat, while Zaeed, Miranda, and Cynthia all clambered into the back of the car. Miranda was right, this place was a pisshole.

* * *

Alright, so Garrus is next, read and review.


	7. The Archangel and The Archdemon

So finally Garrus is here! And I add my first real scene that I wrote! Yay! REVIEW!

* * *

It took about ten minutes to get to the base. During the ride, the batarian had disclosed that his name was Salkie, but otherwise there had been nothing eventful. Once Shepard had gotten out, Salkie observed, "It's about time they sent me someone who looks like they can actually fight. They tell you what we're up against?" Shepard answered, "The recruiter was a little vague." Salkie insisted, "We wouldn't get many hires if everyone knew the truth. Archangel's holed up in a building at the end of the boulevard over there. He's got superior position, and the only way in is over a very exposed bridge. It's a killing ground. But he's getting tired, making mistakes. We'll have him soon enough."

Shepard could handle sniper fire, but if Archangel was as good a shot as he was supposed to be, this might get difficult. Cynthia asked, "You guys have a plan?" Salkie reported, "A small team is waiting to infiltrate his hideout, but we need to draw Archangel's fire so they can move in." While Shepard wasn't particularly concerned that anyone would get seriously injured reaching Archangel; he was hoping that there would be more merc cannon fodder to get shot before him. With a little hesitation in his voice, Shepard asked, "And that's where we come in?" Unfortunately, the batarian confirmed, "Exactly. You'll be on a distraction team. Head straight over the bridge and keep Archangel busy so the infiltration team can sneak in behind him."

Cynthia grinned and muttered, "Sounds like a suicide mission to me. Fun…" Apparently Salkie heard her, because he responded, "Pretty much. But you look like you can handle it. Head up to the boulevard and get to the third barricade. Talk to Sergeant Cathka. He'll tell you where to go." Shepard nodded and said, "Alright, we'll go now." Salkie stopped them quickly and added, "Watch yourself on the boulevard. Archangel's killed dozens out there already." Cynthia waited until Salkie was in his car, then she noted, "Well, we might have a way in; but getting out could be interesting."

Shepard sighed, "Yeah…we've figure it out once we find him." EDI contacted Shepard through his communications and informed him, "Shepard, I've scanned the area, but I am unable to plot any other paths to Archangel." Shepard looked down, "Yeah, I guess we're going with the mercs. Thanks EDI." EDI continued, "Thank you Shepard, The heavy mechs and gunship possess considerable firepower. Weakening them before leaving will improve your chances."

* * *

Shepard had chosen to do a little information gathering, he had gotten tactics from all three groups and weakened the heavy mech Eclipse had. Now he just had to talk to Sergeant Cathka and he could finally recruit Archangel. Shepard asked to a human in armor, "Cathka?" The human pointed behind him, and sure enough, there was a Blue Suns engineer working on the gunship. The engineer stood up and walked over to Shepard, he was definitely batarian.

The first half of Cathka's visor was enabled, the technology he had in his helmet allowed him to turn the black tinting of his visor on or off. He tapped it off and corrected, "Sergeant Cathka. Ah…you must be the group Salkie mentioned. You're just in time." Cynthia spoke up, "Were you waiting for us?"

Cathka acknowledged her, "The infiltration team is about to give us the signal. Archangel won't know what hit him."Cathka walked over to a console, to check how far he had gotten with the repairs on the gunship. A few short explanations of the tactics later, Shepard was ready to go. There was just one problem. The gunship was going to be ready to go soon, and that could mean someone gets killed.

Cathka had told bravo team to go, so no one would notice that he wasn't in contact for at least a few minutes. Cathka had his back to Shepard, and there was an electrically charged welder on the table. But electrocution would give Cathka enough time to scream, and that wasn't good. Shepard instead chose to walk up behind the batarian. "Sorry, but you're working too hard." He put his hands on either side of the batarian's helmet and snapped Cathka's neck. The gunship wouldn't be fully repaired.

Shepard rejoined his team right behind the wall. Cynthia commented, "Doesn't look like Archangel's got much time." Miranda added, "Well, let's not wait around too long." As Shepard jumped over the wall, Archangel jumped out of his cover, after avoiding a shot from a grenade launcher, and fired a bullet into a freelancer's head.

Systematically, Archangel launched enough bullets to take down the half a dozen troops in front of Shepard's team. Shepard smiled and said, "Come on. We'll give these guys a surprise of our own." The team ran from cover to cover, Shepard was leading them. The rest of the freelancers were setting up a bomb under Archangel's post.

Shepard waited until he was safe from Archangel's shots, and then fired his pistol into the bomb the engineering squad was setting up. The resulting blast sent them flying across the room. Shepard really didn't want to do that, these people were just kids and idiots, but Archangel had to get out of there alive. Once the remaining few soldiers who had been trying to sneak up on Archangel noticed that Shepard had turned on them, they shifted their focus from Archangel to Shepard. This was a mistake. Archangel scored headshot after headshot on the distracted mercs. Whoever Archangel didn't take down, Shepard shot or stabbed (with his omni-blade).

Shepard was always a threat on the battlefield, after years of training and experience; Shepard was a whirlwind of death and destruction. Shepard had lightning reflexes **before** he died, with cybernetic augmentations he could barely be seen by the naked eye as he sliced and shot his way through merc after merc. Cynthia wasn't really different, except she mainly preferred her guns to her omni-blade (Cerberus obviously didn't like her, but at least they sprung for a blade for her).

Once Shepard finished, he walked through the door to Archangel's perch (the mercs had just finished hacking it before Shepard started hacking through them). Archangel didn't even bother to turn around, luckily he seemed to get that Shepard was on his side. With his pistol hanging limply at his side just in case Archangel got threatened and had to be subdued, Shepard inquired "Archangel?"

Archangel just raised his hand silently, asking for a moment. Archangel took a few seconds, and then his target must have come out of cover, because he fired once and got up from kneeling on the floor. He put his helmet on a pile of crates by his side and took his seat on said crates. Then, with disbelief he said, "Shepard…I thought you were dead."

Shepard's eyes immediately widened, he was going to get Garrus Vakarian on his team again! Shepard outstretched his arms and exclaimed, "Garrus! What are you doing here?" Then the turian tiredly responded, "Just…keeping my skills sharp. A little target practice." Garrus was obviously tired; it looked like he hadn't slept in days. Cynthia concernedly asked "You okay Garrus?" Garrus still had his signature eyepiece, and his armor had a higher ridge around his head, but otherwise it was more or less the same.

"Been better, but it sure is good to see a friendly face. And three unfamiliar ones. Who are you three?" Shepard looked behind him and replied, "Oh, this is Zaeed Massani, Miranda Lawson and…Cynthia Shepard." Garrus nodded at Zaeed and Miranda, but at Cynthia he stared for a few moments before saying, "Ah, you never told me you had a sister."

Shepard looked at Cynthia and said, "Yeah…That's because I didn't until about a week ago." Garrus took another few moments to look at Cynthia and slowly responded, "Wow…I didn't think humans grew that fast." Since the whole group was human, they all found the turian's failure to comprehend the situation humorous. Garrus looked at the humans and asked, "What?" Cynthia walked forward and said, "I'm not Shepard's sister. And humans **don't** grow that fast. Shepard was dead, Cerberus brought him back. And cloned him. I'm that clone."

Garrus stared at Cynthia for the third time, and gingerly responded, "Oh…wow…that's…ok…well…nice to meet you. We'll catch up later, but now we have to get out of here. That bridge has saved my life…funneling all those witless idiots into my scope. But it works both ways; they'll slaughter us if we try to get out that way."

Shepard took a look at the bridge, "So…we just sit here and wait for them to take us out?" Garrus looked at Shepard and said, "It's not all bad. This place has held them off so far. And with the three of you…I suggest we hold this location, wait for a crack in their defenses, and take our chances. It's not a perfect plan, but it's a plan."

Shepard nodded and looked at Garrus, "It's you Garrus. I would've worked with 'yes'." With what looked like a smile, Garrus started moving over to his post. Then Garrus heard the one question he really didn't want to answer, from the one man who he had been through hell with; "But I want to know, how did you get in this situation?"

That was the question. Why was Garrus here, doing this? Because of one greedy bastard. Because one man decided he didn't care about ten other people. Because Garrus was an idiot. "My feelings got in the way of my better judgment. It's a long story. I'll make you a deal; you get me out of here alive, and I'll tell you the whole damn thing."

Shepard pulled out his own sniper rifle, it was clearly the best way to drop these mercs, and said, "I'll get you out of here alive Garrus. All right, let's get ready. They'll be here soon." Garrus thoughtfully looked at Shepard, and then simply acknowledged, "Yeah. That, they will." As he walked up to the ledge, Garrus pulled out his own sniper rifle and suggested, "Let's see what they're up too." While he checked the status of the bridge through his sniper rifle, he reported, "Hmm…looks like they know their infiltration team failed."

Shepard took another look at the burned corpse that had been flung against the stairs when he detonated the bomb, "Yeah." Garrus was about to pass his rifle to Shepard, when he noticed that the Commander already had his own out. Garrus remarked, "Take a good look. Scouts. Eclipse, I think."

Shepard still remembered the tactics he had discussed with the merc leaders, "Yeah, it's supposed to be Eclipse, then Blood Pack, then the Blue Suns. Jaroth, Garm, and Tarak told me so." Garrus looked surprised for a moment, before remembering how Shepard had gotten in. Cynthia was looking through her own sniper rifle, and observed, "That looks like a lot more than scouts." Garrus checked his rifle and announced, "Indeed. We better get ready."

Shepard set up Zaeed and Miranda covering the stairs, Zaeed, from just outside the door to Garrus' hideout, Miranda through the back opening in that room. Shepard, Garrus, and Cynthia were all set up at the main post, sniping whoever got on the bridge. They were all excellent sharpshooters, and all of them had ocular enhancement (for Shepard and Cynthia, ocular implants; for Garrus, his eyepiece). Even so, the level of damage was impressive. No one managed to make it in the base, in fact most of the enemy forces were downed before they took five steps past the wall.

Then a crane appeared, moving a YMIR Mech onto the battlefield. Garrus quickly remarked, "Damn it! They're sending out the heavy mechs." Shepard put his hand on Garrus' shoulder and replied, "Save your ammo. Reload, get ready for next wave. That problem should take care of itself." Garrus looked confused, but that cleared up when the mech turned around and started firing at Eclipse mercs hopping over the wall. No one had to fire a shot; the mech just killed all the mercs.

As the mech was finally destroyed by the concentrated fire of a dozen mercs, the sniper team resumed and continued to decimate Eclipse troops. Finally Jaroth came over himself, his arrival was followed by three headshots, but unfortunately the salarian had his shields up (although they were taken down by the sniper fire). Now they just had to get through his armor, and he would be dead. Just two more trios of shots from the team finally neutralized the Eclipse leader.

Garrus conceded, "You're kicking ass, Shepard. They barely touched me. And we got Jaroth in the process. I've been hunting that little bastard for months." Archangel was a figure of justice, a mercenary killer. That he would hunt Jaroth wasn't surprising. Shepard looked at the bridge and asked, "We've still got Blood Pack and Blue Suns left. Think we can make a break for it?" Garrus warily replied, "Maybe. Let's see what they're up too.

This time without his sniper rifle, Garrus looked at the bridge; "They've reinforced the other side…heavily. But they're not coming over the bridge yet. What are they waiting for?" The answer came with a ground-shaking pulse. That pulse was followed by alarms, they were coming from a locked door on the ground floor. Cynthia had been monitoring the bridge with her sniper rifle; but the tremor almost threw her off the balcony, and she angrily yelled, "What the hell was that?"

Garrus made a few taps on his omni-tool and declared, "Damn it. They've breached the lower level. Well they had to use their brains eventually. You'd better get down there, Shepard. I'll keep the bridge clear."

There was no way in hell Garrus could fend off all the incoming mercs by himself, according to Garm this would be Blood Pack, and that meant waves of krogan and vorcha. Shepard returned, "I didn't come all this way to let you die Garrus. We'll split up two and three—Cynthia, keep Garrus alive. Garrus was about to protest Shepard leaving behind one of his squad members, but Cynthia interrupted him; "We both know he's not budging on this, so don't fight it Garrus.

With a weary sigh, Garrus resigned on the matter and said, "Alright, thanks Shepard. You'd better get going. The basement is down a level on the west side of the room, behind the stairs. Good luck."

Shepard nodded and ran down the stairs and past the door into the basement. Garrus radioed Shepard and said, "Shepard, you've got to get to the console and close the shutters before they can get through." No sooner had Shepard initiated the shutter closing then a door opened at the end of the hall and Blood Pack troopers came pouring through.

Shepard pulled out his Arc Projector; he brought it to replace his Grenade Launcher. After a brief moment of charging the weapon, Shepard fired. The electrical pulse surged through trooper after trooper, and took down a dozen vorcha, the krogan's armor was just severely damaged.

Shepard checked the console, _00:05_, just a few seconds longer. He ducked behind cover and jumped out to fire shots with his pistol. Miranda and Zaeed were doing the same thing. The door closed, blocking out the mercenaries on that side. Two more to go.

Before Shepard opened the next door he ordered, "Those guys got us by surprise. Miranda get out your SMG, Zaeed, get out your assault rifle. On my go, take down anything that moves." Shepard pulled out his own assault rifle, he always preferred those weapons. "Alright, one, two, three, GO!" On his mark, the trio of soldiers burst through the door and used precision fire to take down the Blood Pack squads that had occupied the room. Then the team ran over to the console; and once again Shepard set up the shutters to drop.

This time, the team mercilessly mowed down any idiots stupid enough to get in view. Once the process was repeated for the third shutter, Shepard's team rushed upstairs, Garrus and Cynthia were fighting off the Blood Pack, _"Damn it! I should have had Zaeed stay too."_ Once the door was open, Shepard ran into the thick of the crowd of enemy soldiers.

A series of pistol shots dispatched several vorcha, and a krogan. There was a krogan charging Shepard though; so Shepard ran at it, dodged to the side, and kicked the reckless fool into a bookshelf. Shepard lifted the krogan up, and thrust his omni-blade between the krogan's eyes. As the impaled behemoth sunk to the ground, Shepard could see Cynthia shoved Garm off the balcony, onto the main floor. His biotic barriers were already down, so once Garm hit the ground Shepard just had to make the killing blow, a shot with his pistol ended him quickly.

The whole team quickly rendezvoused upstairs, where Garrus was located. Once Shepard came through the doors, Garrus greeted him with, "Thanks, Shepard. They hardly got through to me. And thanks, Cynthia, you really helped." Cynthia grinned, after slamming Garm off a ledge that was the least that could be said about her.

Garrus continued, "And we took out Garm and his Blood Pack. This day just gets better and better. He was one tough son of a bitch." Shepard moved the conversation on to the escape, "Only the Blue Suns are left. I say we take our chances and fight our way out."

Garrus agreed, "I think you're right. Tarak's got the toughest group, but nothing we haven't faced before. Besides, he won't be expecting us to meet him head on—" A gunship appeared at the window, everyone took cover and Cynthia sarcastically remarked, "Yeah, he would be pretty surprised if we met him head on now."

Garrus fired a shot at the ship, and yelled, "Damn it! I thought I took that thing out all ready!" Shepard emptied his assault rifle clip into the vehicle and replied, "They repaired it, but not completely. I made sure of that. The gunship left, but troops began coming through the now-broken window. Cynthia and Shepard jumped over the furniture in their way to reach the window; they would just duck if the ship came back.

They shot anyone rappelling in, that or threw them out of the window (the ground was a long way down, they wouldn't survive). Shepard engaged in a fist fight with one of Tarak's immediate subordinates, Jentha. Garrus interrupted the fight by using his sniper rifle to score a headshot on the woman. Miranda's biotics were especially useful; she took care of any stragglers without shields or armor that got past the others.

Garrus noticed mercs on the stairs and yelled out, "They're deploying troops on the ground floor!" The mercs on the stairs were quickly disposed of, and an Arc Projector shot took out the majority of the infantry. By now, Zaeed and Miranda were easily covering the ground floor from the stairs. Once they had killed the last merc, Garrus got up and started looking at the window for any infantry, Shepard and Cynthia were to his sides.

Suddenly, the gunship arrived, and the external speakers barked, "Archangel!" It was Tarak's voice, he was piloting it. It was his gunship, so that wasn't a particular surprise. Garrus tried to face the gunship, but he was met with a storm of machine gun fire. He was hurt, badly. He crawled to cover behind a counter as Tarak roared, "You think you can screw with the Blue Suns! This ends now!"

Garrus tried to roll to new cover at the exact wrong time, one of the rockets fired by the gunship hit him, and he silently laid where he had fallen. He was bleeding, and he seemed to be unconscious. Cynthia desperately asked, "Garrus!" Shepard simply stared at his friend. The gunship had left, it would inevitably be back though.

Miranda and Zaeed ran into the room, both of them gathered by Garrus. Cynthia was applying medi-gel and talking to the corpse of Shepard's best friend. Internally, Shepard screamed _"NO! THAT SON OF A BITCH! NO! GARRUS!" _Despite the rage in Shepard's head, he said nothing, just staring at Garrus. He was dead. Shepard had just one job, get Garrus out alive, and he had failed.

Cynthia had put Garrus behind some cover; if the gunship came back it couldn't see or get to them easily. Zaeed and Miranda rushed downstairs to clear a path, they had to get out of there. But there was no chance Shepard could leave him again, Cynthia was obviously holding back tears, trying to heal or resuscitate the turian.

Shepard's face began to morph; stress and anger had managed to force Shepard's cybernetics to become clear. He looked like a monster; his eyes were bright red, his face was adorned with horrific scars, but Shepard didn't care. His best friend either just died or was dying before his eyes.

The gunship reappeared at the window where it had first shown up. Shepard stood from his cover, and Tarak seemed intrigued enough to not fire. Shepard's voice was shaky, but he still managed to yell, "Leave. Your alternative is a timely demise. You can still repent, go and tell people what happened here. And if you ever so much as jaywalk, I will find you. And I will kill you."

Cynthia pleaded, "Shepard, we don't want two bodies, distract him and let's go!"

Tarak's harsh laughter echoed through the room. "You're wrong human, I will kill you, right now!" With that the gunship lowered in preparation to fire a rocket.

Time slowed for Shepard at that moment, anger, sorrow, and fear pulsed in his veins. He forced a sick grin, and muttered a barely audible, "I was hoping you would say that." Tarak targeted the Commander, and fired a single rocket. Shepard ran towards it as fast as he could and enabled his omni-blade, "THIS IS FOR GARRUS!" Without slowing at all, Shepard raised his arm; the missile was just a few feet away now. If he was going to pull this off, he needed to get as much distance from the missile as possible.

Shepard sliced through the missile in one swipe, and the two pieces exploded on the wall behind him. Luckily they were far enough away from Cynthia to avoid her getting hurt by the explosion. The explosion illuminated the terrifying face of the human, and in Tarak's last thoughts he remarked about how at that moment the human looked like a demon. The explosion enabled Shepard's momentum as Shepard jumped onto the window ledge, and leaped.

He didn't care if he died, didn't care if he fell, Garrus was a brother to him and he would avenge him.

He landed on the gunship as it was backing up, and with his omni blade still out, pierced Tarak's head through the glass. That wasn't enough, in four stabs, Shepard ripped out the batarian's eyes, one of the few things that they believed desecrated a body.

Tarak had been sending the gunship forward, and now it would smash into the building. Shepard prepared for a crash landing and leaned backwards a bit.

The ship accelerated, Shepard hugged the glass on the gunship and used his omni-tool to have his helmet pull up and cover his head. This was going to hurt. Once the ship smashed through the wall, Shepard, still clinging for dear life onto the vehicle, used his feet to help throw him to the left of the vehicle.

Luckily it worked, the gunship smashed just to the side of the stairs, Shepard landed at the feet of the stairs.

Shepard took a moment to force himself up, and he immediately saw Miranda as he looked up. She was pissed. Really pissed. Shepard didn't care; he pushed past her, walked up the stairs, and knelt down next to Garrus.

His blue blood was pooling around his torso, and he still wasn't breathing. Cynthia was right by his side. Remarkably, his eyes opened, his grip tightened around the muzzle of his sniper rifle, and he took a quick breath.

He rolled over, and Cynthia yelled "Garrus!" Garrus wasn't dead! But he was dying, and quickly. Shepard stared dumbfounded at Garrus body. As the turian continued his labored breathing;

Shepard grabbed some medi-gel and, with Cynthia, began applying it to him. Shepard turned to Miranda and ordered, "Radio Joker, make sure their ready for us." Cynthia desperately pleaded, "Please, just hold on Garrus. You'll make it, we'll get you out of here, just…hold on." Zaeed commented, "He's not going to make it."

Shepard turned back, "Shut the hell up, Zaeed." Then he looked into Garrus' blue eyes and promised, "We'll get you out of here alive Garrus." While he desperately wanted to, that was a promise Shepard might not be able to keep.

* * *

Alright, so read and review.


	8. Scars and Plagues

Sorry I haven't updated this for a while, I was on vacation and then I just got lazy. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

**"He gazed at his 'friend'. For the first time, he accepted defeat. There was no redemption, the person before him was past the point of return."**

The last few hours had been a nightmarish hell for Shepard and Cynthia. The Normandy was ill-equpped to heal aliens, it was stocked for humans. However, with Doctor Chakwas' help, Garrus was somehow still alive. Chakwas had kicked the Shepards out of the Medical Bay.

"He took a rocket to the face. It's a miracle he didn't die immediately." Cynthia commented. She and John had been waiting in his cabin for a while. John hadn't looked Cynthia in the eyes since they had gotten back, "I screwed up. I killed Garrus Vakarian. If I had just stayed still and helped you move Garrus he might be up by now."

Cynthia rose from her position on the couch, and walked over to sit next to Shepard on his bed. "John, you did the right thing. If we had tried to run, the gunship would have killed us all. Garrus owes his life to you. I know exactly how you feel, but don't blame yourself."

"Yeah…I thought I was beyond rage, and revenge. And then I get stupid and **jump** onto a god damn gunship. I thought I was done with letting revenge control me." John kept his head bowed as he said this. Cynthia nodded, "I know."

John finally looked up and almost jokingly said, "Well, Tali's squad got massacred, Garrus is… might be dead; I'm almost scared to imagine how I might screw up the other's lives."

Cynthia's pulled out a half-hearted smile, "Can't be that bad. John…I'm sorry. I know all this revival stuff is tough on you, I get a fresh start with a new face and a new personality; and you get stuck pulling the remains of your life that were burned in the atmosphere back together."

John finally looked at the woman to his left, and remarked, "We haven't talked about this…so how does this work? I mean, you have no records of ever existing, I asked the Illusive Man about it and he said that your lack of identity would be helpful on this mission. But you might have a different idea."

Cynthia adjusted her position and slowly answered, "Ok…how about…well we share the same DNA, and I was planning on staying with the name Cynthia Shepard, so how about when we can, we enter into the official databases that we're siblings? I'm your sister. We'll worry about figuring out how to do that where I don't get found out as an imposter and a Cerberus clone later."

John smiled, "Alright. You're my sister. Wow; that'll be a hard one to explain to mom." John hadn't contacted his mother, Hannah Shepard, for the same reason he hadn't contacted Liara, Ashley, or Wrex. Digging up old memories could be unpleasant, and he wanted to spare them that. Not to mention, no reason to tell them all he's alive when he might be dead any time now.

They were on a suicide mission, after all. They might never return so there was no point in forcing everyone to grieve a second time.

Several moments of silence passed, neither knew what to say. Cynthia broke the silence, "So has Tali contacted you?"

Shepard awkwardly responded, "No…And I don't want to send her anything. We have…a lot to talk about. It isn't the kind of thing to do through e-mails. But she has her work on the Migrant Fleet, and we have our suicide mission. There isn't a lot of time for my love-life. "

Cynthia's face was a blank slate, all this talk was just a distraction from Garrus. Cynthia stared at John, and began to say, "We should go check on Gar-"EDI broke in with a message, "I apologize for the interruption, but Operative Taylor requests your presence in the Briefing Room. It's about our newest arrival, Garrus Vakarian."

John and Cynthia were apathetic about the situation, but once they heard that it was about Garrus, they quickly got up and got into the elevator to go see Jacob.

Jacob started to speak as soon as the door was open and he was certain it was the Shepards; "Commander. We've done what we could for Garrus, but he took a bad hit." Shepard reactively looked down, he felt guilty over the turian's injuries. Jacob continued, "The docs corrected with surgical procedures and some cybernetics. Best we can tell, he'll have full functionality but…-"

Almost as if on cue, the door opened and Garrus walked into sight. His armor was badly damaged, and his face…It was red and scarred on the right side, no doubt an effect of the rocket he had taken to the face.

He acknowledged, "Shepard…Cynthia," to the two familiar faces in the room. Jacob studied the turian's face himself, and observed, "Tough son of a bitch. Didn't think he'd be up yet."

Shepard and Cynthia had giant grins plastered on their faces. Garrus walked closer to the Shepards, and implored, "Nobody would give me a mirror, how bad is it?"

Cynthia spoke up, "Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some facepaint on there, and no one will even notice."

Garrus' mouth opened as he laughed, only to look down and ask, "Don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is. Besides, some women find facial scars attractive. Mind you, most of those women are krogan…"

Jacob left, and Garrus returned, "Frankly, I'm more worried about you. I've heard bad things about Cerberus these past few years." It was Shepard who replied, "That's why I'm glad you're here Garrus. If I'm walking into hell, I want someone I trust at my side."

Garrus had nostalgia in his voice as he pointed out, "You realize this plan has me walking into hell, too. Huh. Just like old times. I'm fit for duty whenever you need me, I'll settle in and see what I can do at the forward batteries."

With that, Garrus left. Cynthia looked at Shepard, and remarked, "For being hit in the face with a rocket, he looked pretty good." Shepard had a look of worry on his face, "I'm worried about him, he was stuck fighting off mercs for almost a week on Omega; I want to find out why. But yeah, I'm glad he's alive too."

"You want to go question him?" asked Cynthia. Shepard looked at Cynthia and explained, "Well, it's not like it's an interrogation. Just a catch-up between friends. Come on."

* * *

Tali had just finished a debriefing between her and the Admiralty Board. Despite the results of the last mission a week ago, they were planning to give Tali another. She wouldn't turn them down; she would serve her people to the extent of her ability.

A part of her desperately wanted to contact Shepard, but she knew that if she dead she would leave the Migrant Fleet and join him. Tali loved him, but she couldn't abandon her people, not even for Shepard. He would do fine. Besides, whether for better or for worse, he had changed. It was subtle, but the two had known each other for a long time. She could tell when something had changed, even after so long apart.

In the end, that was to be expected. She had changed a lot too. Everyone had, and they weren't brought back from the dead by terrorists. Nonetheless, when she was debating whether or not to just contact him, this served as a useful temporary reason to just think of other things.

And whenever she decided that love was more important than service, she had to repeat over and over that she had moved on; and he probably had too. Frankly though, nothing had changed for her. It had been two long years, and still she hadn't been able to finish her mourning.

Who was she fooling? She would want nothing more than to call Shepard, and join him on the Normandy. But her people needed her, and Shepard didn't. Tali had always wondered why Shepard had chosen her; if he wanted, he could have gotten Liara or Ashley. Hell, he was a great speaker; he might've been able to have them both.

The one thing about their relationship which Tali was convinced about at this point was that he had, or could move on without her. But the quarians needed Tali's expertise, they needed the information she was going to get.

As Tali lay awake one night, after a long day of preparing for the upcoming mission, she thought up a hundred ways she could handle this. Before she went to sleep, she decided on one thing.

She **would** call Shepard and join the Normandy. She would leave the Migrant Fleet to be with Shepard, no matter what. As soon as her mission was done. Once she was done, she would ask Shepard to accept her on his crew, and then she would leave.

Simply knowing how to progress with this gave Tali peace. There was no reason to call Shepard anymore, they would be reunited soon if he chose. Besides, what was between them shouldn't be said over the extra-net.

Tali rolled out of her small bed and started fiddling with her omni-tool. She couldn't sleep, and she had lots of work to do. Really she was just killing time. Specifically, two weeks of time.

* * *

Cynthia had argued with Shepard for a few minutes, before persuading him to hold off talking with Garrus for a while. She had swayed him that Garrus needed just a little time to rest, so Shepard had made his rounds, while Cynthia resigned herself to the Crew's Quarters.

Once Shepard had conversed with everyone on the crew besides the turian, he stopped by the crew's quarters and invited Cynthia to come talk to Garrus with him.

As the metallic door opened, the duo could see Garrus tapping away at the Main Battery's console. At the sound of the door opening, Garrus turned around and acknowledged, "Shepard...s. Need me for something?" Cynthia responded, "Have you got a minute?"

"Sure. Just checking the weapons system. You can never be too careful." As Shepard and Cynthia moved to either side of the small room, Garrus proceeded, "I thought I'd seen every weapon in the galaxy in our fight against Saren. Mercenary work showed me otherwise. And now Cerberus rebuilds the Normandy with a few upgrades to boot. I wish we'd joined up with them sooner."

Although he knew that Garrus was just being sarcastic, Shepard needed to clear something up; "We are not with Cerberus. They just…happen to be funding us." Garrus shifted in his armor slightly and explained, "I know. Besides, I can't exactly doubt your judgment. Not after I got my own squad killed."

The dossier hadn't told Shepard about that. Although it was obviously a sore point, Shepard decided to pursue it with caution; "What did your merc squad do? It didn't sound like you were available for hire."

Garrus seemed more than happy to inform, "You saw Omega—it was full of thugs kicking the helpless. I formed my team to kick back. We weren't mercenaries. At least, nobody was paying us. We made money by taking down slavers, pirates, or gangs that went too far."

This sounded somewhat sketchy to Shepard, so he started out light, "It doesn't sound like you made any friends with the gangs." Garrus took a moment and sarcastically replied, "I got three separate merc bands to work together to take me down. My manager at C-Sec would be impressed."

Garrus began to pace, "It was simple. We'd hit their shipments, disrupt activities. Get under their skin. Make them angry. They'd come charging right into our well-prepared kill zone. Crossfire and snipers, clean and surgical. They never stood a chance."

Cynthia hesitantly said, "It sounds like you were just another gang."

Garrus took a moment, but he calmly responded, "Then I'm saying it wrong. We didn't shake anyone down. No civilian casualties. That was our rule. Every member of my team had lost someone to Omega's gangs. We weren't out to get rich."

This** was** Garrus, but this was a more hardened, angry Garrus. It showed when he said, "We were out to make those bastards think twice before murdering someone in the street."

Shepard analyzed his turian friend, and politely asked, "Tell me about your squad."

Garrus briefly looked away, as if to reminisce, and divulged, "There were twelve of us, including me. Former military operatives, C-Sec, the usual. Salarian explosives expert, batarian tech expert, all great men."

Now it was down to the key part of their meeting, "How did you end up fighting mercenaries here on Omega?"

Garrus looked regretful and ashamed as he explained, "After…after the Normandy was destroyed, most of us went our separate ways. C-Sec asked me back, but I…turned them down. Omega was filled with criminals nobody else could touch, and there was no red tape to slow me down. It was a perfect fit. People here…needed someone to believe in. Someone to stand up to the local thugs."

With a pause Garrus continued, "My team was made up of mercs who wanted to atone, security consultants tired of playing by the rules. I gave them…hope. And now they're dead. Shows what I know."

Both Cynthia and Shepard knew this was a delicate matter, but they needed to know what Cynthia asked; "How did the mercenary gangs take down your team?"

Garrus walked barely out of the room, and glared forward, "It was my own damn fault. One of my people betrayed me. A turian named Sidonis. He drew me away just before the mercs attacked my squad, then he disappeared. Everyone except me is dead because of him. And because I didn't see it coming."

Shepard asked, "Are you sure it was a betrayal? Maybe they took Sidonis out first." Garrus snapped towards Shepard and half-snarled, "No. I put out feelers. He booked transport off Omega just before the attack."

Garrus continued to glare at Shepard, "He also cleared out his private accounts before he left. He sold me out and ran. When I got to the meeting point he sent me to, nobody was there. By the time I got back to the hideout, the mercs had killed all but two of my squad. They didn't last long."

"Do you know where Sidonis is now?" Shepard slowly tried to ease the conversation in a new direction.

Garrus curtly said, "No. But I'll keep hunting. I lost my whole team, except for Sidonis. One day I'll find him…and correct that. Thanks for coming by Shepard, Cynthia." The turian walked back into the Main Battery.

Shepard was about to speak, but the closing of the doors to the battery interrupted him. With a defeated shrug directed at Cynthia, he walked back to the elevator. Cynthia took a long look at the just-closed door and slowly walked away. _"He needs help, not isolation."_ Despite that, she didn't turn back.

* * *

Mordin Solus. The man, or rather, salarian, was alive for one reason. Because he was skilled. He had worked in the STG, and now he was running a clinic on Omega. Mordin was obviously a genius, even by salarian standards. It had taken a hassle to get past the idiot turian doing quarantine, but a little verbal sparing had resolved that quickly. It didn't hurt that Cynthia had threatened him with a grenade launcher.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard could see a batarian bleeding out. "Human. Should have guessed." He wasn't exactly friendly. Shepard nodded, "Yeah, yeah, we're evil, we destroy everything, we're parasites, now hold still." The batarian had sustained a gun wound through the chest. He wasn't going to make it without some medi-gel.

Cynthia helped the angry victim up, as he slowly stammered, "You...you...helped me...why?" Shepard smiled and simply responded, "It's what I do." He was barely standing, he obviously had the plague that this area was being quarantined for. To keep the situation from becoming problematic, Shepard had kept Garrus back, instead sticking to a team of Zaeed, Miranda, Cynthia, and himself.

"Thank you. My time is running short, but you have given me a flicker of hope to brighten the darkness of my final hours." Cynthia lightly gripped the batarian's shoulder and comforted, "No we didn't. Because these are not your final hours. We'll find a way to help you."

Neither Miranda nor Zaeed looked like they cared, Shepard doubted that they would really care whether or not the victim in front of them was dead or not. Cerberus and mercenaries. What fantastic company. Now the topic of interest, "I don't want to die. Wherever Mordin is, I will risk it, if he can reach me."

He was basically saying that he would rather slowly die of a debilitating plague than see a doctor. Either this guy had a severe phobia of needles, or Mordin was more screwed up than the dossier suggested.

"What makes Mordin worse from dying from the plague?" The batarian looked horrified, traumatized. "He killed the Blue Suns. Stunned them with some toxin and gunned them down. They tried to press him for money, and he just killed them. He's not just a doctor. Doctor's don't kill people and display their bodies as warnings."

Holy shit, was this guy a doctor or a psychopathic serial killer? "I...need to find him." Cynthia sarcastically added, "Even though now we really don't want to." The batarian pointed behind himself and said, "He has a clinic on the far side of the district, he's taking in refugees. Offering to help people infected with the plague. I was afraid to go to him before, he's dangerous. But...perhaps he can help."

Shepard took a look down the hallway and offered, "Once I get to him, I'll tell him to send someone here to help you. Gotta go." With a quick handshake, the batarian choked out, "Thank you human. Goodbye."

A quick detour into another room provided a disconcerting sight, a turian with bloody hands and claws dead on the floor. He had obviously tried to claw his way out of the locked room. The journey down the hall gave way to yet another disturbing sight, a batarian dead in his room. The Blue Suns had locked him up because he had the plague.

Bastards, if only Garrus had succeeded in wiping them out. But, another chance was arising as a troop of them appeared in the next room.

Shepard grabbed his pistol and scored a head shot on the first Blue Suns member, continuing to end the lives of numerous Blue Suns members. Cynthia ran forward and blew away trooper after trooper with her shotgun. Both of them wiped out every combatant in the room in just a few seconds

A dozen rooms full of enemies, muggers, and civilians later (somehow Shepard restrained himself from shooting those muggers) the team of deadly ass-kickers reached the clinic of Doctor Mordin Solus.

A bunch of hyped up-clinic assistants pulled guns on the quartet as soon as they stepped towards the door. "Keep the guns down if you don't want to get shot by the mechs and everyone else in there." With that they put down their guns and the team proceeded into the clinic, and into the room of the doctor.

Every patient in there was talking about how Solus had saved their lives. As they came up to his room, everyone could hear him jabbering about medicine, prescribing doses, and reactions. All in about five seconds. He talked fast, and as far as he could tell, Shepard decided Aria was right. Mordin just wouldn't just the hell up.

With a little reluctance, Shepard and Cynthia went up to the doctor while Jacob and Miranda stayed in the lobby. "Professor Mordin Solus?" With a quick scan of his omni-tool, Mordin's mouth took off, "Hmm. Don't recognize you from the area. To well armed to be refugees. No mercenary uniforms. Quarantine still in effect. Here for something else. Vorcha? Crew to clean them out? Unlikely, vorcha a symptom, not a cause. The plague? Investigating possible use as a bio-weapon? No. Too many guns, not enough data equipment. Soldiers, not scientists. Hired guns maybe? Looking for some-"

Jesus christ, this guy just wouldn't shut up. Shepard tried to be polite, but with Garrus testing his patience, and having to get a check up every day to make sure signs of being a zombie-cyborg didn't burst through his face, his patience was wearing him thin. And besides, Mordin thought they were hired guns, and he didn't want to be poisoned.

"Relax Mordin, I'm on a critical mission, and I need your help." Mordin half angrily, and half shocked, demanded, "Mission? What mission? No, too busy. Clinic understaffed. Plague spreading. Who sent you?"

Cynthia rolled her eyes at the vocal speed of the salarian and said, "Cerberus. He's Commander Shepard, and I'm Cynthia Shepard."

"Shepard and Shepard? Father and daughter? No, female too old. About same age. Similar genetic qualities. Not siblings, not spouses, not parent and child, same age. No...maybe...no...yes! Are you his clone?"

Cynthia stared in awe as the salarian's mental process worked, "What? Yes, and who the hell are you calling old?" Shepard threw an awkward stare at his supposedly identical 'twin' at that comment.

Mordin took a deep breath, frankly it was remarkable he hadn't breathed in the middle of that; and affirmed, "Meant no offense, in relativity to a theory. Also, back to important subject, Cerberus. Crossed paths on occasion, thought they only worked with humans. Why request salarian aid?"

Shepard was astonished, Mordin's speech and behavior had to be the actions of some type of medication or drug, or caffeine. This wasn't possible. He should die of asphyxiation between his breaths, they were that long. But nonetheless, it was impossible to not notice the fact that Mordin was like a hamster that had just drank coffee mixed with cocaine.

Shepard snapped out of his stance of amazement to say "We're on a mission to shut down the Collectors, and we need your help."

Mordin raised his hand to his chin in a thoughtful pose as he mulled, "Collectors? Interesting. Plague hitting these slums is engineered. Collectors one of few groups with technology to design it. Our goals may be similar. But most stop plague first. Already have a cure. Need to distribute at the environmental control center. Vorcha guarding. Need to kill them."

"Just once, just **once **I wish someone would just come along, no strings attached." Cynthia audibly muttered. Shepard sighed and responded, "It's like Aria said, everyone needs more something. Don't worry, Doctor Solus, we'll deal with the vorcha." Sounds of machines shutting down echoed throughout the clinic, "_Oh, shit. They just shut off the environmental systems."_

Shepard explained, "The vorcha have shut down the environmental systems. They're trying to kill everyone. If we don't get the power back on in time, this whole district suffocates." Mordin nodded to validate Shepard's theory and handed Shepard some type of medicinal thing, along with a pistol and said, "Take plague cure, also bonus in good faith. Weapon from dead Blue Suns mercs. May come in handy."

Just as Shepard and his squad were about to storm out, Mordin added; "One more thing, Daniel. One of my assistants. Went into vorcha territory looking for victims. Hasn't come back." Cynthia grimly nodded and said, "If we see him, we'll do what we can to help."

"Thank you. Told him not to go. But he's smart. Bright future. I hope." Cynthia nodded and Shepard lagged for a second before saying, "Oh, and we found a batarian plague victim near the entrance to the neighborhood. He needs medical attention." Mordin nodded and responded, "Will send help as soon as possible.

With that the team stormed out to begin their work.

* * *

The clamor of battle stopped as Cynthia sent a clip of pistol ammo whizzing through the brain of a krogan Blood Pack mercenary. Yet another room cleared.

As the team proceeded down a hallway, voices could be heard. Cynthia opened the door to reveal a batarian holding a human by his collar. "We know you're spreading the plague virus. We saw the vials in your bag."

"No! Those vials contain the cure. Please...you have to believe me." The batarian was getting violent fast. "Maybe we should cut off your fingers. That should loosen your-"

Shepard stepped into the room from his position to the side of the doorway. Another batarian pulled out his shotgun and exclaimed, "Look out!"

Within a second, a pistol was aimed to the human's head. "Don't move! One more step and we kill your friend!"

Shepard didn't have time for this, in a dozen minutes or so, everyone in here was going to die of asphyxiation. Nonetheless he calmly assured, "I know you're scared. Of the vorcha. Of the plague. But this man isn't to blame. If he was spreading the virus, why would he come into vorcha territory? They're immune."

The first batarian who had gone for his shotgun agreed, "He's right. It doesn't make any sense." A few moments of dead silence passed. Then, "If we release the prisoner, we can go?

They didn't deserve to live. These scum bastards deserved death. But Shepard wasn't that kind of person, so he complied, "You have my word."

The batarians put down their weapons and turned to Shepard and Cynthia. "You got what you wanted, human. Are we free to go?" Shepard nodded, "We had a deal."

"Human nobility. I didn't know such a thing existed." Miranda and Jacob came out of cover, if things had gone badly; they would have jumped out and attacked.

The batarians left, and the human began to speak. "I'm Daniel, thank you. I thought they were going to...to kill me. Did Mordin send you to find me?"

"Yes. We don't have much time, go back to the clinic. He needs you there." Shepard rapidly stated. Daniel nodded and ran off, back to the clinic.

The team proceeded into the environmental controls center. Dozens of vorcha were around. Shepard decided to make their presence clear.

"Alright, let me make this very clear from the beginning. What you're doing is pissing lots of people off. Including me. If you just drop this and go somewhere else, no one gets hurt. This is your only chance."

The vorcha all turned to look at them, then one spoke. "No! We will kill you all! We-"

Shepard shot the speaker in the head, "I said only one chance." He subsequently ran into cover and used his assault rifle to decimate the vorcha. Cynthia was magnificent, her aim was extroirdinarily precise.

Finally all the opponents were dead, for now. In a minute reinforcements would swarm the room and the process would restart. It was becoming difficult to breathe. Shepard and Cynthia struggled to reach the sides of the room, where they could distribute the cure. Jacob and Miranda were trying to restart the systems so that air would flow at all. Shepard's breaths were becoming hastier and weaker. He had no doubt that the same was happening to everyone in the district.

Suddenly; success! The systems rebooted and air started to flow into the lungs of the residents once more. Shepard and Cynthia simultaneously distributed the cure. At that moment, the vorcha reinforcements arrived. Perfect timing, because Cynthia and Shepard had just rejoined the others in the center of the room. The vorcha burst through, only to be immeadiately destroyed by concentrated bursts of assault rifle fire.

Not one of them made it through the doorway. The air of this district was safe again. Time to go get Mordin.

* * *

Mordin was incredibly grateful, and he prepared to join the crew of the Normandy as soon as he could. In a few hours he was aboard the ship. Shepard had just conversed with Garrus, but once again the turian gave him nothing. They were friends once, now Garrus was different. Angry, hateful, vengeful.

Ultimately, Shepard's decision was that, while Garrus had changed, it was to be expected after two years. He left it alone.

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So that was fun. REVIEW!


	9. Big Krogan Babies and Politics

Review!

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******"He was going to die. He understood why, he accepted it. If redemption could not be found in this man, how could any trust be placed in anyone? They were supposed to be friends. But his friend was going to shoot him."**

"Tell the Cerberus cheerleader to back off Shepard. I'm here because of our deal." That was the welcoming greeting that was extended to Shepard as he entered the conference room.

"Miranda will let you into the system. Let me know what you find."

If looks could kill, Miranda's glare would have stabbed Shepard. Then it would have shot him. Then...it would have badly desecrated his corpse. He would need to have a serious talk with Miranda after this. Too bad it wasn't his choice.

"Hear that precious? We're going to be friends. You, me, and every embarrassing little secret. I'll be reading down in the hold, or somewhere near the bottom. I don't like a lot of through traffic." 'Jack' just left after that, only pausing to add, "Keep your people off me. Better that way."

Shepard could only hope that Jack would put on more clothes once she got settled in.

Miranda was about to start lecturing Shepard on all the ways he was unfit for command, but she seemed to remember one very important thing. Shepard was in charge. He explained and dealt with these things kindly, but Miranda was wearing his patience thin.

Lucky for him, she just shook her head disapprovingly and left to go back to her office.

In the past few days, the crew of the Normandy had increased by three. Well, two. Shepard had picked up a thief, Kasumi Goto; a convict, Jack. And then...there was the krogan. They had picked him up looking for Warlord Okeer.

EDI had been running an analysis of the tank the krogan was in. Shepard had insisted that EDI run every possible scenario to avoid an incident when Shepard released the krogan. Either the krogan would go on a rampage and try to kill everyone, or he wouldn't be ready for the outside world, and he would die.

Just as the team had returned from the prison ship, Purgatory; EDI had finished. The krogan was ready to be released. So Shepard decided to follow his standard protocol. He didn't put his personal pistol back in the armory.

EDI's omnipresent voice sounded out from the speakers as Shepard entered the cargo hold. "The subject is stable. Integration with onboard systems was seamless. Releasing the subject would not endanger his life."

Cynthia entered the room a few seconds later. "Hi Shepard. So...are you really about to do this?"

Shepard sighed deeply, he was a trusting person, but even he was reluctant to release an angry super soldier krogan.

"Yes. Stand by. I'm going to open the tank and let him out."

EDI responded with a few statements about Cerberus policies regarding untested alien technology.

"He's either a powerful addition to the crew, or a time bomb. I'd rather deal with it now."

With what sounded like resignation, EDI gave way. "Very well, Shepard. The controls are online. The switch- and consequences- are yours."

With a few taps on the control panel, the tank's panel retracted. All the fluid leaked out and the krogan fell to his hands and knees. Then he opened his eyes and coughed up some more of the fluid.

He had less prominent plating in his head. It made him look much younger. He was massive even for a krogan. And he used that weight to his advantage.

He charged. Right at Shepard, and slammed him against the metal wall.

"Human. Male. Before you die, I need a name."

Cynthia was holding a pistol by her side, waiting for Shepard's silver tongue to reap its rewards. "I'm Commander Shepard, and I don't take threats likely. I suggest you relax."

"Not your name. Mine. I am trained. I know things, but the tank...Okeer couldn't implant connection. His words are hollow. Warlord, legacy, grunt...grunt. 'Grunt' was among the last. It has no meaning. It'll do. I am Grunt. If you are worthy of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me."

Despite the fact that one of his newest crew members was about to beat the shit out of him, only one thought crossed Shepard's mind. "You wouldn't prefer 'Okeer'? Or 'Legacy'?"

Grunt seemed to want to cut to the chase. Too bad the chase involved his death.

"It's short. Matches the training in my blood. The other words are big things I don't feel. Maybe they fit your mouth better. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies. I will do what I am bred to do- fight and determine the strongest- but his imprint has failed."

Now the part that might earn 'Grunt' a bullet through the head. Shepard really, really didn't want it to come to that. He had talked Wrex down once, but Wrex was close to a thousand years old. He was older, wiser, and more reasonable.

"Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any other. Might as well start with you."

Okay. Grunt wants to fight. So I'll give him fights. "I have a good ship and a strong crew, a strong clan. You'd make it stronger."

"If you're weak and choose weak enemies, I'll have to kill you."

If he really tried to, Shepard could kill Grunt. Or Cynthia could shoot him. A redundant nervous system wouldn't stop a clip of bullets through his brain.

"Our enemies are worthy. No doubt about that."

Grunt mulled it over for a few moments, "Hmm. Hmph! That's...acceptable. I'll fight for you."

Shepard smiled and calmly said, "I'm glad you saw reason."

Grunt looked down to see Shepard's personal pistol aimed at his chest. He turned to see Cynthia aiming another pistol at his back.

Grunt turned back to Shepard, "Ha! Offer one hand, but arm the other. Wise, Shepard. If I find a clan, if I find what I...I want, I will be honored to eventually pit them against you. And...you too."

Cynthia nodded, "The feeling is mutual." Grunt chuckled in a deep and highly disturbing voice.

Shepard offered to give Grunt a tour around the ship, but the hulking krogan refused. So Shepard and Cynthia left. Once they went up, they decided to chat with Garrus.

It was obvious he was the third wheel. It was obvious there was a lingering resentment in the air. Garrus was pissed; he was just good at hiding it. Shepard really had no idea what he had done. But frankly, he didn't want to confront Garrus.

He didn't know why, but it was just something he...would prefer not to do. After the conversation started to push Shepard out, he left. Shepard wasn't stupid; Garrus was both pissed and smitten. With Shepard and...Shepard. Cynthia was spending all of her free time in the Main Battery.

The actions and business of his 'friends' were beginning to lose meaning to Shepard. Without Tali...returning from the dead became much harder. It didn't help that Garrus was alienating him.

Damn it. He could only hope that things would go better with Wrex and Liara. And Ashley. Damn. Ashley was going to be difficult. But there was one meeting that would be much sooner. David Anderson. The Normandy was heading back to the Citadel.

Everyone else had temporary shore leave, but Shepard was heading to the Presidium. Anderson had requested his presence.

Grunt was like a kid in a candy store, except he was a krogan in a gun shop.

Kasumi was...oh crap, where was she? If Shepard didn't know, that wasn't going to be good.

Garrus was with Cynthia, and Cynthia was just looking around.

Jack was either still on the ship, or killing people in an alley. God, he hoped it was the former.

Miranda was catching up on work, still on the Normandy.

Jacob was inspecting new arms to purchase for the Armory.

And Shepard was about to step into the office of **Councilor** David Anderson.

As soon as the door opened Anderson greeted him. "Oh, Commander. We were just talking about you."

Shepard shook the man's hand and replied, "It's been a long time, Anderson. I hope the last couple years have treated you right."

Despite the fact that Shepard was intruding upon a Council meeting, Anderson still responded, "There've been some rough spots. It's good to have you back."

The salarian councilor...Valern; interrupted, "We've heard many rumors surrounding your unexpected return. Some of them are...unsettling."

The asari, Tevos, added, "We called this meeting so you could explain your actions, Shepard. We owe you that much. After all, you saved our lives in the battle against Saren and his geth."

_"Yes I did. I battle you refused to accept existed. And now you want me to justify preparing to fight these Collectors off. I hate politics. And besides-" _This part had to be spoken, despite the fact that once again no one would listen. "Saren wasn't the one commanding the geth. It was the Reaper, Sovereign."

The turian councilor, Sparatus, continued to be a painful, albeit necessary, thorn in Shepard's side. "Ah, yes. Reapers. The immortal race of sentient starships allegedly existing in dark space. We have dismissed that claim."

Anderson turned to Shepard and said, "Shepard, no one else encountered the hologram on Ilos that told you the truth about the Reapers. Only you and your crew ever spoke with Sovereign. **I** believe you, but without evidence from another source, the others think Saren was behind the geth attacks."

Despite several different valid arguments, Anderson managed to affirm that the Council had a point. There was no physical evidence. It was understandable why they couldn't take anything on faith; their decisions controlled trillions of lives. If they didn't accept the Reapers now, they wouldn't be prepared for the Reaper invasion.

And if they don't start taking his words on faith, trillions of lives might be extinguished.

"I kept Saren from conquering the Citadel. I sacrificed human lives to save this Council."

Tevos was always the most helpful, which wasn't saying much, but still. "We are in a difficult position, Shepard. You are working for Cerberus- an avowed enemy of the Council. This is treason, a capital offense."

_"They can't haul me in. I'm a Spec-oh shit. I was dead. They know me, they won't do this again. Don't do something stupid."_

Luckily, Anderson took Shepard's side, "That's too far. Shepard is a hero. I'm on this Council too, and I won't let this whitewash continue."

Tevos seemed to remember Shepard's previous actions, "Maybe there is a compromise. Not a public acknowledgement given your ties, but something to show peripheral support."

And then Sparatus decided to agree on the matter. Given the situation, Shepard was lucky. "Shepard, if you keep a low profile and restrict your operations to the Terminus Systems, the Council is willing to offer you reinstatement as a Spectre."

If there was one thing Shepard knew about politics, it was that it all revolved around paperwork. "What does that mean? Will I need to start filing reports?"

Valern eased Shepard's mind on the matter, "That won't be necessary. This is a show of good faith on our part."

Tevos decided to summarize the meeting, "We cannot become involved in an investigation regarding the missing colonies in the Terminus Systems. But Spectre reinstatement shows our support of you personally."

It would have been helpful if they had just said that sentence at the beginning. But, no need to burn bridges. Always be polite and helpful. That had one him a bunch of friends, any of whom probably want him to stay the hell away. He tended to both attract, and deal with trouble. But there was almost always...collateral damage.

Regardless, Shepard walked a few steps towards the hologram projections and said, "I accept your offer. It's good to have the Council on my side."

The Council just seemed relieved they hadn't pissed Shepard off and sent him to go blow stuff up. Well, the last time they made him mad, he was in control of their lives. So they seemed as eager to stay on Shepard's good side as Shepard was eager to stay on theirs.

"Good luck with your investigation, Shepard. We hope for a quick resolution...and a quick end to your relationship with Cerberus." Tevos ended.

Directly afterwards, the holograms turned off. "Well. That went better than I expected. You realize the Council's offer is just symbolic. They won't actually do anything."

"Even if they don't help, I might as well stay on their good side."

"True enough. Don't worry about the Council or the Alliance. I'll find some way to keep them off your back. Shouldn't be too hard as long as you keep to the Terminus Systems."

Then, the bane of Shepard's existence walked through the doors. "Anderson, we need to talk about- Shepard! What are you doing here?"

"Relax, Udina. I just stopped by to check in on Anderson."

Anderson looked at Shepard, quickly discounting the lie Shepard had provided, "You don't have to cover for me. I invited Shepard here to speak with the Council. We just finished our meeting."

Udina was pissed. Not any more at the moment, he was just...always pissed.

"You **what?** Councilor do the words political shit-storm mean anything to you?"

Shepard took a deep sigh. "The Council reinstated my Spectre status. They're just happy I'm staying out in the Terminus Systems."

Udina waited a few moments to consider the ramification of Shepard's actions. "Yes... I could see how that arrangement works best for both sides. But you really shouldn't have taken a step like this without consulting me first, Councilor."

Wow. Even when kept as a simple advisor, Udina was still a pompous asshole. Anderson could say it better, "I don't answer to you, Udina. Why don't you go to your office and think about that for a while?"

Udina still obviously held a grudge. He glared at Anderson and muttered, "Of...course, Councilor. Good day to both of you."

Udina stormed out. He was good at his job, but he needed to pull the stick out of his ass. Anderson started talking once the Ambassador left, "Sorry about that, Udina's never gotten over the fact that I got the Council position instead of him. Sometimes I need to put him in his place."

"It doesn't bother me. He was just doing his job."

"True, he's got his uses. And if you want something done on the Citadel he knows who can make it happen. Plus he's always happy to attend all those formal diplomatic functions I can't be bothered with."

Anderson stepped towards the balcony. The view was beautiful. The conversation went on, they caught up. The last couple years had treated him well. He wasn't exactly overjoyed to be bogged down by the bureaucracy, but he was getting along.

After this, everyone returned to the Normandy. After the conversation with the Council, Shepard was dwelling upon his situation. Everything had changed. Everyone had changed. He would be lucky if he got to talk with any of his old friends, let alone have it so that they were willing to see him again. But, no time for self pity. According to EDI, The Illusive Man had to talk to him.

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Alright, so that's out. Review!


	10. A Dark Horizon

Alright, so this is probably my last chapter for a while. Dawnguard, the Skyrim DLC is coming out and I'm planning to retreat to my nerd cave for the next week or two. REVIEW OR I WON'T UPDATE.

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******"Any option was preferable to the one he was about to make. Murder. It didn't have to end this way. But it had been forced, there was no alternative. He would have to kill yet another, and live with the consequences."**

Horizon was under attack. And Ash was on Horizon. The situation was bad, if he failed, Shepard would let hundreds, or maybe even thousands of colonists die. The Illusive Man had already briefed Shepard, so he just had to get his team ready to go.

First up was the matter of the seeker swarms. One specimen had been caught on Freedom's Progress, so now Mordin was devising a way to avoid being paralyzed by the swarms.

As Shepard walked into the lab, Mordin was observing the specimen. If they weren't prepared, this mission was going to go very badly.

"Mordin? Tell me you have something." The results of his research would either save or damn a lot of people. Thankfully, he walked over to a console and confirmed it, they had something.

Then on the console, he pulled up an image of a type of body armor. They were good to go.

* * *

Damn, the further they got in this, the more difficult it was. The defense towers weren't working properly. Ashley was trying, but this project was simply getting more and more prolonged. Lilith would know what to do.

She really wished that Garrus or Tali or...no. Shepard's dead and nothing will change that. The crew is split up, no need to dwell on the past.

Why then, did she torment herself with dreams that Shepard would suddenly drop out of the sky and bring them all back together? It was never going to happen. But, the thing that needed to happen was the calibration of those damn defense towers.

"Lilith! We've got a problem."

"Still can't calibrate the targeting matrix?"

"Those defense towers are useless if we don't figure it out."

"Sorry, Chief. Getting our comm systems back online takes priority."

The comm systems had been offline for a few hours now, it was a pain in the ass. These towers needed to be set up quickly, so the colony would be ready. But speed bumps in the process kept appearing.

"Yeah. Okay. Surprised people haven't tried to blame that one on me, too."

Lilith just repeated a tired sentiment, "People out here don't trust the Alliance. It's nothing personal."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ashley could see something in the clouds. She pulled out her assault rifle to check it out through the scope. It was... a ship?

Not like any ship she had ever seen, and it wasn't good for any ships to be passing through without notification. Quick action needed to be taken, the people had to be protected.

"Get everyone to the safehouse."

As soon as she said that, a moving black cloud started heading towards them.

"I'll cover you. Run!"

She had never seen anything like this before, but that didn't change how she would deal with out. As the people ran away she held her ground and started firing bursts into the cloud.

It was starting to look like the cloud was made up of...insects. That was unexpected, but definitely not better. Ashley started backing up, and she helped Lilith off the ground as the insects finally reached them.

One of the insects bit her neck, and the rest headed to the remaining colonists. She pulled the insect off and inspected it for a moment before throwing it down and beginning to run.

But, she wasn't running. She was trying, but she couldn't move. The bugs! They had a paralytic poison in them! So maybe they were being used as a bio-weapon? Something was coming, and she had a feeling it wasn't just pirates.

She couldn't see the colonists, but she could tell they were running. After all, Ashley could still hear and see, she just couldn't move!

After about a minute, the armor she had on had run a diagnostic and injected her with a muscle relaxant for the paralysis. She turned around, only to see dozens of the colonists, they didn't have top of the line armor to cure them like she did.

Ashley could hear something, and a glance at her armor indicated that enemy soldiers would be here any minute. She couldn't help the colonists right now, but she would get them later. Ashley ran into a building and used the back exit to keep running.

She had to hide and see how well she could remotely calibrate the defense towers. If she went to one of the two safehouses, she could use the consoles to try to get the towers operational. Then the enemy ship would be destroyed, and she could begin to make some headway into this.

* * *

For this mission the whole team would be deployed. Shepard, Cynthia, Garrus and Jack would lead the first wave.

They would make sure the Seeker countermeasure worked, then the second wave would come in after five minutes to either evacuate the first wave and develop an appropriate countermeasure, or help civilians and finish off straggling Collectors.

It was a risky plan, but Shepard had the utmost faith in Mordin's abilities as a scientist. Now it was time to determine if that faith was misplaced.

Once the shuttle landed, Shepard established contact with the Normandy. "We're grounded. Mordin, you sure those armor upgrades will protect us from the seeker swarm?"

He knew the answer. In theory, the two most hated words of a soldier. But still, chances of death prompted stupid questions.

"Certainty impossible. But in limited numbers, should confuse detection, make us invisible to swarms. **In theory.**"

Garrus seemed eager to display his trademark sarcasm, "In theory? That sounds promising."

Cynthia nodded and added, "As Wrex would say, if I die out here, I'll kill him."

Mordin seemed like he just wanted to bypass the jokes and threats, "Experimental technology. Only test is contact with seeker swarms. Look forward to seeing if you survive!"

A squad of Collectors suddenly...well, some of them were there, and some of them flew (that's new) in.

Shepard equipped his incendiary rounds and got behind cover. Working as a team, the quartet quickly dispatched of the Collectors. They were numerous, and biotic, but not particularly tough.

Once again, everyone was gone. The Collectors had already taken lots of people, but their ship and their infantry were still there. They hadn't finished, and with a little luck Shepard would ensure that they would never finish.

Up ahead were a few more Collectors and- holy shit! Husks! That rules out that husks were geth technology. Well, shit. Here he was really hoping that he would never see one of those grotesque monstrosities again.

Once again, the the combined fire of four of the most badass fighters in the galaxy proved that the Collectors didn't stand a chance. But, eventually Shepard was expecting things to progress to the Collector ship, so things would heat up over there.

Once the team stumbled upon a husk in their path, they stopped for a moment. Garrus, like Shepard and Cynthia, had a look of painful reminiscence in his eyes. "These things used to be human. This what's left of the colonists?" Garrus asked.

Cynthia took a brief look around before opposing the idea, "No. On Eden Prme, victims were turned into husks by impaling them on those spikes. We haven't seen any."

Shepard nodded and continued, "The Collectors must have brought the husks. They're taking the colonists alive for something else."

The ever-silent Jack chimed in for once, "If the Collectors are taking the colonists, what kind of fucked up experiments do you think they're doing?"

Garrus took a moment to solemnly reply, "Maybe it's better not to know the details."

Shepard quickly began to move, "Indeed, but right now we're wasting time. The Collectors aren't getting away with more victims. Let's move out."

The rest of the team followed him to a series of empty buildings and the pods that the Collectors were supposedly using to haul humans away. Only three Collectors were stationed here, and Garrus' sniper rifle, along with Shepard's pistol, ended their lives.

Shepard ordered his team to open the pods, followed by an order to sweep the buildings. They had to help as many people as they could. Unfortunately, all the pods were empty. They were spares.

While the others were sweeping the buildings, Shepard got a call from the Normandy, "Shepard. This is Miranda. We're beginning our deployment, we need a status report."

Shepard looked in the sky to see if the seekers were being attracted to their position. "The armor upgrades worked. We're all fine. Begin the secondary deployment."

Miranda acknowledged, "Understood." That was good. They might need reinforcements.

Once the sweeps were done, the team proceeded to another area with one key difference, there were still people there! They weren't moving though, they were strictly stuck in one place.

Cynthia got close to one of the statue-esque people to examine them. "Seems to be some kind of stasis field: keeps you conscious, but completely helpless."

Shepard looked around, the people were running. They must have been paralyzed as soon as the Collectors landed. "They've been like this a long time."

Resting on one of the pods scattered around was a Collector weapon. Once they got back to the ship, they would analyze and reproduce it. But for now, the only copy they had was held by Cynthia. Shepard really kept enough weapons on him.

After a few steps into the next area of the complex, a dozen Collectors dropped down. Then one of them, the lead as far as Shepard could tell, began to hover and glow. Then, yellow cracks appeared all over its body.

_"Holy shit! I knew they were bug-like, I didn't know they could go through metamorphisis! Well, at least they'll be easier to kill if they all transform into butterflies."_

But it didn't change, most of the cracks went away and its eyes glowed more, but otherwise it was the same.

Then it spoke in a deep, booming voice. "I am Harbinger. I am one of the entities your species refers to as the 'Reapers'. We are here to prepare these humans for ascension. Submit to that ascension, so that you and your shortsighted bacteria friends can be spared a display of our power and strength."

Shepard couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Alright, so let me get this right. The Reapers aren't even here yet, only your little minions are here, and you already want me to surrender? Come on, you could at least wait until you arrived to ask me."

Harbinger's avatar cocked its head. "I will not play your games Shepard. Answer me."

Shepard smiled, "You know my name! I'm that famous! I'm flattered, really. But the thing is, if I submit now, then I'll have to wait until you come here, and these long distance things never work out. And if I submitted, I couldn't do what I'm planning to do."

Harbinger was starting to get angry, he knew many of his minions would die in a fight, but the destruction of a tool was not an appropriate reason to bend to the will of a feeble human.

All of Shepard's squad had gone into hiding behind cover as soon as the Collectors had been spotted. As far as Harbinger was concerned, Shepard was alone. Which would make this even more fun.

He suspected the team was ready for a while now, but he had to be sure, so he had stalled.

"Well Harbinger, this is what I'm planning to do."

With that Shepard pulled out his assault rifle and started precisely firing upon the Collectors in the background. Harbinger was about to attack Shepard with his biotics, but Garrus and Jack sprung into action, taking down his shields and then knocking the Collector avatar on his ass.

Cynthia jumped out with the Collector weapon and started firing it, despite the fact that she had no damn idea what was going to happen. Luckily, instead of creating an explosion that would kill everyone, it fired a beam at the target, which Cynthia used to take down the Collector avatar, and subsequently every Collector that wasn't sniped, shot, or biotically slammed.

It took a matter of seconds to kill every Collector. Shepard looked around and turned to his team, "Wow. That beam was... a nice touch. Good job everyone, we just met the second Reaper that this cycle has ever found and told him to fuck off. Thank god you managed to kill him before he hit me though."

Cynthia smiled and put her fancy new toy away, "Shepard, we were ready to kill them as soon as we got into cover. I know you love to talk, but next time maybe cut it a bit short."

Jack genuinely smiled for the first time Shepard had seen (that wasn't a smile that indicated something was going to get killed) and Garrus laughed, much to his own pain.

Shepard just rolled his eyes and gestured to the console that controlled the massive door in their way, "Yeah yeah, when you stop laughing maybe you would care to come on so we can- oh what were we doing? Oh that's right! Saving lives."

That shut them up. He could only hope the reunion with Ashley would be something like that, a big speech, and a few laughs. Minus, you know, the gunfire and dying.

He finished hacking the console and the massive door opened. It was a warehouse. Or a safehouse. As he walked over to the weapons locker dead ahead of him, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. A foot behind some large machinery.

"Company" Shepard muttered.

He aimed his pistol at the foot and yelled, "Get out here. Now!"

After a face appeared, the rest of the man who was hiding appeared and said, "You're...you're human! What are you doing out here? You'll lead them right here!"

Shepard smiled and calmly said, "Unless you're worried about zombies, they won't be coming in. And besides, you had to hear them trying to get in. Seems like it's hard to hide from the Collectors."

The man, probably a mechanic said disbelievingly, "Those things are Collectors? You mean...they're real? I thought they were made up. You know - propaganda. To keep us in Alliance Space. No! They got Lilith. I saw her go down. Sten, too. They got damn near everybody!"

Shepard looked down, if they failed 'damn near everybody' would die. Or be used in gruesome experiments. Not better. "I need to know what I'm up against. Tell me everything you remember."

The mechanic forced himself on and choked out, "We...we lost our comm signals a few hours ago. I came down to check on the main grid. Then I heard screaming. I looked outside and there was...swarms of bugs. Everyone they touched just froze. I sealed the doors. Damn it - it's the Alliance's fault! They stationed that Chief Williams here and built those defense towers. It made us a target!"

Defying an urge to ask about Ash, Shepard forced his mind back on the whole. The lives at stake, not the friend at stake. "If you have defenses we can use them against the Collector ship!"

The mechanic looked at Shepard like he was stupid, "You'd need to calibrate the targeting system first. It's never worked right."

Cynthia looked at Garrus, between them they had a formidable tech duo. Cynthia had been practicing her tech skills for a while now. She had even put in a requisition form for a cloaking device for herself. She spoke up, "We can figure it out. Just tell us where to find it."

Luckily, the mechanic was specific, a gift in Shepard's line of work. "Head for the main transmitter on the other side of the colony. Pretty hard to miss. The targeting controls are at the base."

Shepard nodded, "Alright. We'll go get those towers working. Oh, and it's probably best if you stay out of the way."

The mechanic nodded, and the team left.

* * *

They had just blazed through a dozen more Collectors and husk-like freaks. Holding their ground at the defense tower transmitter was surprisingly difficult, but nonetheless the position was held.

Once the towers were set up (EDI was working on it, so it couldn't be long) they could fire upon the Collector ship and end the attack on the colony.

That made the rapidly approaching object in the distance all the more troubling. Then it landed, its jaws open. Inside were the heads of dozens of husks, so this was either a very powerful natural creature or more likely; another Collector enemy.

Immediately everyone ran for cover. Shepard took one look at the monster before ducking back behind the tires he was using for cover and saying, "EDI, we need that system online!"

Cynthia observed the obvious, "A new one. Whatever that is, don't get too close."

Shepard reloaded his weapon and ordered, "On three, send that thing to hell with whatever you've got. One. Two. Three!"

On three, dozens of bullets flew into the creature, followed by the continuous beam of the Collector weapon.

The barrage downed the barriers of the enemy, and according to a quick scan, barely damaged its armor.

Then it crashed into the ground and sent out a purple pulse, recharging its barriers.

_"Oh crap. This is going to be_ difficult." The creature started firing beams of energy at members of the team, one by one sweeping the area.

Several minutes yielded nothing but a lack of ammo and minor damage to the enemies' armor. The consistent barrier recharges left little time to damage the armor and kill the monster.

They needed a game changer. And they got it. Wave two, led by Miranda, opened the doors and, noticing the enemy, unleashed a hail of gunfire and biotic attacks on it.

The primary team took this opportunity to stage their attack as well. The continuous fire ripped through the barriers, and subsequently damaged the armor of the enemy enough for Cynthia's Collector weapon to destroy the creature.

Once the armor was penetrated, the creature quickly disintegrated into dust and was blown away.

Unfortunately, the Collector ship also began to leave. The defense turrets came to life and began to fire at the colossal ship, but the damage was negligible. Especially because only a few shots could be made before the Collectors left visual range.

Once again the Collectors had won. Once again Shepard had let too many people die. As the ship left the atmosphere, he could feel nothing but guilt and pain. If he had just moved faster, the turrets could have done their work and crippled the enemy.

He could no nothing but stare at the air with a look of pain on his face. "No...no. GOD DAMNIT!" He slammed his armored fist into the wall of a building. He was strong enough to make a significant dent.

The entirety of the present crew was shocked the see their normally calm Commander break down. Everyone but Cynthia.

The mechanic ran up at this time, yelling "No! Don't let them get away!"

Taking a few moments to pause he averted his gaze from the mechanic and slowly choked out, "There's...nothing we can do. They're gone."

"Half the colony's in there! They took Egan and Sam and...and Lilith. Do something!"

"I didn't want it to end this way. I did what I could."

He had let hundreds of people die. And as if almost killing Garrus wasn't enough, now he could only stare at the sky as Ashley was experimented on. Damn it.

In a rare moment of comfort, Garrus commented "More than most, Shepard."

At that, the mechanic turned around. "Shepard? Wait. I know that name. Sure, I remember you. You're some type of big Alliance hero."

At that moment the most comforting voice in the universe at the moment appeared, "Commander Shepard. Captain of the Normandy. The first human Spectre. Savior of the Citadel. You're in the presence of a god, Delan. Back from the dead."

Delan analyzed Ashley and said, "All the good people we lost, and you get left behind. Figures. Screw this. I'm done with you Alliance types."

Delan walked off, and Ashley walked closer. Then she extended her hand and said, "I thought you were dead Commander. We all did."

Shepard smiled and shook her hand. A hundred thoughts raced through his head about what to say. I was dead, Cerberus revived me. Well, now I'm a super zombie-cyborg. Nice armor. Yeah, and Garrus seems to be real pissy about it.

Instead, he just settled on this, "It's been too long Ash. How have you been?"

Ashley's expression immediately changed to anger, "That's it? You show up after two years and act like nothing's happened? I would've followed you anywhere Commander. I thought you were gone...I...you were more than our Commander."

She leaned in aggressively as she continued, "Why didn't you try to contact me? Why didn't you let me know you were alive?"

"Ashley...If I was alive I would have told you. I was out for two years. You've moved on with your career and your life. Why reopen old wounds? What could you possibly gain by seeing me again?"

"I moved on...but here you are pulling me back in. And now we've got reports about you and Cerberus."

Garrus spoke up again, "Reports? You mean you already knew?"

Ashley seemed surprised to see Garrus, she hadn't noticed him in with the others. "Garrus? How did...Alliance intel said Cerberus could be behind our missing colonies. We got a tip that this one could be the next to get hit. I went to Anderson but he wouldn't talk. But there were rumors that you weren't dead. Worse; that you were working for the enemy."

Ok, that pissed Shepard off. Ashley knew him better, she was supposed to trust him. Instead she thought he was a god damn terrorist? Well...really she couldn't be blamed. But she was wrong. "Our colonies **are** disappearing. The Alliance turned it's back on them. Cerberus is the only group willing to do something about it."

Ashley angrily walked up to Shepard again, "Bullshit! I know what Cerberus is like. We both do! They talk about putting humans first, but at what cost? I wanted to believe that you were alive...I just never expected anything like this. You've turned your back on everything we stood for."

"Ash, you know me. You know I'd only do this for the right reason. You saw it yourself. The Collectors are targeting human colonies. And they're working with the Reapers!"

Ashley didn't even pause to think, she just spoke. "I'd like to believe you, Shepard. But I don't trust Cerberus. And it worries me that you do. What did they do to you? What if they're behind it? What if they're the ones working with the Collectors."

Garrus spoke up in Shepard's defense again (Damn, was this a dream?), "Williams, you're so focused on Cerberus that you're not seeing the whole picture."

Shepard continued, "You're letting how you feel about their history get in the way of facts."

Ashley wasn't going to budge. She was going to fight him until he gave up or she crushed him. He loved that about her, but this wasn't the time. "Or maybe you feel like you owe Cerberus because they saved you. Maybe it's you, Shepard. It doesn't matter. I still know where my loyalties lie. I'm an Alliance soldier. It's in my blood. I'm reporting back to the Citadel. I'll let them decide if they believe your story."

Normally, he would have tried to guide things in a better direction before asking this. But she was leaving and this was otherwise done. This was his hail mary, he just had to hope it would work. "I could use someone like you in my crew, Ash. It'll be just like old times."

She turned around, "No, it won't. I;m no fan of aliens, but Cerberus has a history of being extremist. I'll never work for a group like that. I'm not a traitor. So long Commander. Good luck."

Then she left, leaving Shepard feeling angry and resentful. He came back from the dead and all he got was a speech about being a traitor. Maybe she was right. It was irrelevant. He needed to do the mission, no matter the cost or employer. "Joker - send the shuttle to pick us all up. I've had enough of this damn colony."

* * *

Yet another meeting with The Illusive Man - the Cerberus son of a bitch. He was quickly tiring of this whole thing. He had lost Tali, Ashley, and hundreds of colonists. He was failing. In more ways than one.

Once he was done...maybe...no idea. He always knew what to do, but now he had no idea. Perhaps it was his viewpoint. He always kept his vision on the mission. Screw the mission. He had stopped caring.

Everything else was a distraction, so he would leave it behind. Once he got back maybe he would try to contact everyone else. Liara, Wrex, his mother. Tali again. He kept up the image of an unbreakable man, but he was broken. The love of his life wouldn't speak to him, neither would his best friend, Garrus. And he was going to die fighting the Collectors.

Cynthia had dropped by to talk to him, but she wasn't particularly helpful. So he made his rounds, talking to all the crew members, making sure they were acclimating. They were fine. He wasn't.

If Shepard was to survive, he needed something, **anything** to live for. To die for. Someone else could do his job if he died. He had a silver tongue, but nothing else that was irreplaceable.

Nothing could pull him from his depression. Or so he thought. Then he checked his e-mail. Three dossiers: Thane Krios, Samara, and **Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema**.

He had lots of things to do, Miranda, Jacob, Kasumi, and Zaeed all had missions that needed to be done but this took priority. For some reason. So the Normandy was going to Haestrom. And Shepard was going to Tali.

* * *

If you only gained literacy halfway through this, I won't be updating for a while after this. Please review so I don't hunt you down and take you head as a trophy so I can dissect your brain to find out your opinions. By the way, now I don't put new chapters up unless I've gotten at least one review per chapter.


	11. Romance in the Shade

Hey guys, so it's a few chapters away, but soon the loyalty mission part comes up. So in the reviews, sound off which loyalty missions I should do on a large scale and which missions I should just take excerpts from and turn into one chapter. One of the biggest events in the whole fanfic is coming up, so that'll be fun. REVIEW OR I SHALL DESTROY THEE.

* * *

**"Death was rapidly approaching, taking a seat to watch the show before he had to go to work. For that was how this had to end. Death. With no alternative present, he prepared out his pistol to aim at the traitor before him. In all likelihood they would both die. That was fine. There was no point to living in a world where one cannot trust...whatever his opponent was to him. A friend? A meat-shield? An acquaintance? It was irrelevant. Whichever he was, death was coming to reclaim him."**

Haestrom. A burning hot planet full of quarian ruins. Overall, a flaming piece of space debris crap. But there was no where else in the galaxy that Shepard would rather have been.

On the shuttle, the oh- so familiar omnipresent voice of EDI sounded out, "Shepard, our data indicates that Tali is somewhere in these ruins. There is considerable geth activity, and an environmental hazard. Solar output has-"

"EDI, I've prepared for this mission. I know all this stuff. I've read the dossier over about twenty times and done my research I'm good as far as info goes."

EDI's programming was surprisingly human. She had emotions and perfect reactions. That's probably why she sounded somewhat annoyed. "Understood Shepard. I will provide updates as the situation progresses."

The damnable sunlight would fry standard shields quickly. So sticking to the shade was the ideal solution. But it was never that easy. Something would come up. Not like that would stop him. He would barrel through walls and roundhouse kick geth to get Tali.

Grunt provided his simplistic view on the twist to this mission, "So we'll fight from the shade. But no hiding."

Shepard smiled, "Tell you what Grunt, you kick enough ass so we don't have to hide and I'll agree with you."

The krogan grunted his approval and the team stopped at a giant gate. Shepard walked in to open the gate, and an apparently quarian logbook on an automatic loop repeated: "Anyone who gets this, find Tali'Zorah. She and that data are all that matters. Keelah se'lai."

Aaaaaand, Shepard's enthusiasm was broken. Cynthia walked in and put her hand on his shoulder, "Come on John, lets go. I'm sure she's fine."

Shepard nodded and opened the gate. Once the gate was halfway down Garrus yelled, "I'm as committed to this as you are Shepard, so if I were you, I would hurry the hell up! There's a geth dropship coming!"

Shepard pulled out his pistol and initiated his omni-blade. "Damn geth. If she's hurt, there'll be hell to pay." He took aim, and as soon as the geth dropped, he scored a headshot. Anger focused him. Anger was his sword and companionship his shield.

Grunt charged, firing wildly at the geth, as well as throwing one into the sunlight. The sunlight quickly downed the geth's shields and melted the machinery into the stone. Okay, so really stay away from sunlight.

Garrus was about to finish off the last of the enemies when a Geth Prime dropped right in front of him. He barely had time to utter "Oh...shit." before he got swatted aside. Cynthia distracted the geth to prevent it from finishing Garrus off, before Grunt slammed into the giant.

Shepard swapped his assault rifle for his sniper and yelled, "Grunt! Duck!" The krogan complied, just in time for Shepard to send a bullet straight through the unprotected geth head. Cynthia, Garrus and Grunt quickly got their feet

Shepard put his sniper rifle onto his back and announced, "Alright, dust yourselves off and lets move out." _"Well. Aren't we off to a good start. I hate geth."_

* * *

Cynthia was dusting off a SMG she picked up from a dead quarian. Grunt and Garrus were double checking their weapons to prepare for the next geth dropship. And Shepard was leaned over a bleeding quarian. Poor bastard. All for Tali. His sacrifice wouldn't be in vain. She would live.

"Op-1, this is Squad Leader Kal'Reegar, come in, over!"

The quarian's radio was still working, apparently. Shepard picked it up and responded, "This is Commander Shepard, how can I help?"

Reegar seemed to be surprised a dead Alliance Commander was helping him on a remote geth planet. How close-minded of him. Reegar just moved past it though, "Patch your radio into Channel 617 Theta."

Shepard and team used their omni-tools and headgear to patch in, Reegar to confirm that Shepard was patched in before continuing, "We were on a stealth mission. High risk. We found what we were after, but the geth found us. They've got us pinned down. Can't get to our ship, can't transmit data through the solar radiation."

Pinned down and can't escape. That sounds good. "What's the status of your team? How many of you are left?" Code for where the hell is Tali.

Reegar explained, "We were a small squad. Dozen marines, plus the science team. We're down to half strength now. Made the synthetic bastards pay for it though."

Shepard rapidly responded, "We'll be there in a few minutes."

Reegar objected, "Take it slow and careful. Direct sunlight fries your shields all to hell."

Shepard smiled, "Yeah, it fries the geth straight to hell too."

Reegar sarcastically remarked, "Well, once all the geth are fried, we're bunkered down at base camp across the valley. I left Tali'Zorah at a secure shelter, then doubled back to hold the checkpoint. Getting Tali out safely is our top priority. If you can extract her, we'll keep them off you."

Instead of commenting about Tali or how Reegar was going to die for research, Shepard just said, "Hold position. We'll hit their back ranks."

Reegar suddenly yelled, "Wait! Watch your ass! We've got a dropship coming in!"

The dropship just stopped, fired a few choice shots at a massive pillar, and flew away. The pillar was going to drop. Shepard motioned with his hand for the team to run, but none of them got there in time before the pillar slammed down on the whole entrance.

There wasn't even a small hole they could squeeze through, the whole entrance was obstructed.

Oh. Fan-fuckin-tastic. Like he said, something always went wrong. Reegar provided a solution, "Crap. Doorway's blocked! Grab the demo charges in the building nearby! Use them to clear a path! They're coming in through the side. I've got to fall back!"

EDI added one of the status updates she had promised, "Shepard, I have scanned the area and located the demolition charges the quarian commander mentioned. I'll put it on your radar. You'll need both sets of charges to clear the rubble."

Shepard rolled his eyes. Nothing could ever be simple. If he was lucky, Tali wouldn't denounce him as a traitorous monster like Ashley. Too bad he was only lucky when it came to dodging bullets. That would do for now.

* * *

Shepard picked up the first demolition charge, halfway to the halfway point to Tali. Greaaaat. There was an audio-log on the same table. Shepard hit play, because why the hell not. It was Tali's Journal!

"We need a core sample to get a timeline on the rate of radiation increase, but our equipment keeps dying on us. Shepard once used a mining laser to clear some rubble back on Therum."

Oh yeah. That was something. The day he met Liara. It had been so much time since he had seen her. More time for that later, now he needed to see Tali. The Journal went on briefly. "Maybe I can do something similar with demolition charges."

Huh, good thing she didn't use them all. Or something really terrible might have happened...Like a bunch of geth not getting blown to pieces.

* * *

"Unless you wanna get blasted, get back!" Shepard slammed the demolition charges onto the stone and set the timer. Fifteen seconds. Everyone ran behind the cover of some mining equipment, per Shepard's orders.

Once inside, there were dozens of dead geth scattered around, along with a few quarians. A damaged geth was trying to crawl away. It was terrible. Shepard put the synthetic attacker out of its misery with a headshot.

The stone around them was archaic by modern standards. "Quarian architecture. Those are two words you don't expect to hear together." Garrus muttered.

Cynthia looked around, "Yeah, tell me about it."

"Our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads. The sun must have been normal back then."

What the hell? A quick search determined the source of the sound. It was another one of Tali's journals.

"So much space. Walls of stone...It's amazing. I wish my friends could see it. I wish Shepard was here."

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

It was Tali, but the current Tali. She was talking through the console next to the door. Shepard hit the respond button and reported, "Tali, it's Shepard. I'm sorry. Everyone here is dead. Any survivors must have fallen back."

Tali looked down in a moment of mourning before responding. "We knew this mission was high-risk. Damn it. And what are you doing here Shepard? We're in the middle of geth space!"

Shepard looked around, "I happened to be in the neighborhood shopping for apartments and I thought you might need a hand."

Tali smiled. Or got pissed that he was wasting time. Hard to tell when you can't see someones face. "Thanks for coming, Shepard. It means a lot to hear your voice."

Garrus walked into the picture, "Yeah? How about hearing mine?"

Tali looked at Garrus, "Garrus? You too? Next your going to tell me you have Wrex, Ashley, and Liara there."

Cynthia put her head in and commented, "Nah, they can afford therapists. We just punch geth to solve our issues."

Tali was in disbelief, this time her emotions were obvious. "Thanks for coming, Shepard, Garrus...Cynthia I think. It means a lot to hear your voices. Kal'Reegar and what's left of the marines got me into the observatory. From where you are, it's through the door and across the field. I got the data I needed, and I'm safe for now, but I've got a lot of geth outside and- oh keelah. This is bad. John, please hurry!

She was one of the few people who called him John on a regular basis. The only exception was when there were people she wasn't familiar with around.

Shepard smiled, "You couldn't fathom how good it is to hear your voice to me. It looks like somebody sealed the door against the geth, and the console is damaged. Can you get it open on your end?"

Tali inspected her console and slowly muttered, "Let me see...Yes, I can do it. Should be unlocked now. Be careful, Shepard. And please do what you can to keep Reegar alive."

The hologram faded and the door's red interface turned green to represent it being unlocked. _"I won't let you down Tali. Not again."_ He had left her (well, he died, but same thing) and let her whole squad die before. Not again.

* * *

He was so close, just a small field away. Shepard opened the shutters to reveal a courtyard, including a giant geth colossus. Grunt gave it a typical krogan spin, "This is why I follow you Shepard, big things!"

Everyone dove for cover as the colossus sent a shot through the window. The team ran down the stairs, towards the voice of Kal'Reegar saying, "Over here! Get to cover!"

Once everyone was behind cover, Reegar formally introduced himself. "Squad Leader Kal'Reegar, Migrant Fleet Marines. We talked on the radio before that dropship arrived. Still got no idea why you're here, but this isn't the time to be picky."

Another blast hit the cover, almost throwing Reegar onto the ground. "Tali's inside over there. The geth killed the rest of my squad and they're trying to get to her. Best I've been able to do is draw their attention."

If the answer was no, Shepard would just drop his gun and jump over the cover. "Are you sure she's still alive?"

Reegar sounded doubtful when he explained, "The observatory is reinforced. At the bare minimum, it'll be a few minutes before the geth get through. And it's hard to hack a door when someone's firing rockets at you."

Cynthia looked over the barrier and commented, "I wouldn't put it past the geth."

"True enough. The geth are near platoon strength, but the colossus is the worst part. It's got a repair protocol. Huddles up and fixes itself."

As if to prove Reegar right, the colossus crunched down to repair. After his evidence was presented, Reegar continued, "I can't get a clear shot while it's down like that. I tried to move in closer, and one of the bastards punched a shot clean through my suit."

It took a minute for Reegar to explain the layout of the battlefield, but then Shepard had a plan. But Reegar had an argument.

"I'm not doing so well, but I can still pull a trigger, and I've got a rocket launcher the sun hasn't fried yet. You move in close, I'll keep the colossus busy, maybe even drop its shields. With any luck you'll be able to finish it off."

Great. Another suicidal soldier. Shepard already filled that role. Besides, he couldn't have another death on his consciousness. "You've done enough Reegar. You don't need to throw your life away."

Reegar was a soldier, he followed orders and did his job. Too bad soldiers were a pain in the ass, so he resisted. "Wasn't asking your permission-"

Shepard lightly pushed him back against the wall as he tried to get up. "No. We have enough people on our side that you don't have to take one for the team. If I have to, I'll make Grunt here sit on you until the colossus is dead."

Grunt did the only thing he did besides killing and talking. He grunted. Reegar lightly laughed, "Alright, if you insist. But what's your plan?"

"Garrus, run right and snipe what you can down. Grunt, go with him and cut down any geth that get too close. Cynthia, go left and do what we both do best. Reegar, you're best off here. Just fire as many rockets at the colossus as you can. Try and cover me, all of you."

Garrus did the turian equivalent of a smirk and asked, "Another suicide mission?"

Shepard pulled out his assault rifle and explained, "Not for you."

Cynthia grabbed Shepard's shoulder, "Stop trying to get yourself killed! What if you die this close to Tali?"

Shepard looked down before saying, "Ha! I died once and all it did was get me more guns!"

His humor fixed the situation, but he was as worried as Cynthia. This was stupid, insane, and going to get him killed. But it was the best chance they had.

"Alright, I'll distract them, you get into your positions. On my mark...go!"

He jumped over the cover and ran like hell was following him. Actually, hell was right in front of him. The geth colossus immediately sent a bolt at him, which he barely dodged by rolling under it.

Garrus reached his sniper perch, just in time to blow the head off a geth that was about to fry Shepard.

Grunt was just obliterating geth on the right side. They didn't even touch Garrus. Cynthia was doing the same on her side. Her SMG precisely ripped through three geth before one of them got close enough that she had to get out her omni-blade and stab it.

Shepard jumped on top of a giant stone block and ducked, the blast almost singed his hair. Or rather, his helmet. Then, he jumped down and used his omni-blade to decapitate a geth unit that was about to shoot him. A rocket from Reegar just barely saved his life by hitting the geth colossus with just enough force to knock it off target.

Shepard finally reached the incline up to the colossus, he grabbed a geth and threw it in the way of yet another colossus blast. He continued to run up, with a minor motivation. Tali's shelter door opened. Shepard kept running, finally reaching the colossus.

Just as it was about to fire on him, he slid under it and used his omni-blade to rip a hole across its bottom. He jumped up and tackled a geth about to enter the shelter. Reegar's rocket hit the colossus and forced it into repair mode.

Using the opportunity, Garrus, Cynthia, and Grunt combined fire onto the colossus. Just as Shepard finished off the geth entering Tali's shelter, the colossus rose again.

Another rocket hit it, and the rapid fire of the four Normandy crew members hit a weak spot apparently, because it started flaming. Everyone ducked for cover, and then the geth exploded, sending pieces of it raining all around.

Shepard looked up to see the most beautiful woman in the world offering him a hand up. Tali helped him up and hugged him; "Thank you, Shepard. If not for you, I would never have made it out of this room."

Shepard let Tali go and looked into her glowing eyes. "It's been too long Tali. And you wouldn't have stayed in this room for that long. After a few minutes, you would have converted it into a spaceship and flown it back to the Migrant Fleet.

Tali lightly laughed as Garrus, Cynthia, and Grunt walked in. "This whole mission has been a disaster. I wish I'd joined you back on Freedom's Progress, but I couldn't let anyone take my place on something this risky."

Shepard's grin just kept growing. "Whatever the reason, I'm glad I could help. Once you deliver the data, I could use you on the Normandy."

Tali seemed happy with an alternative, "I promised to see this mission through. I did. I can leave with you and send the data to the Fleet. And if the admirals have a problem with it, they can go to hell. I just watched the rest of my team die."

He must have taken it as his cue, because Kal'Reegar limped in and added, "Maybe not the whole rest of your team, ma'am."

Tali happily noted, "Reegar! You made it!"

Shepard cast a glare at Tali, "You sound surprised."

Reegar gestured at Shepard and commented, "Your old captain's as good as you said. Damn colossus never stood a chance."

Shepard took a look at Reegar, he wasn't in good condition. "If need be, the Normandy can get you out of here, Reegar."

It was just an act of good faith. If Reegar was too proud to not die without convincing, he was too proud to take a ride back to his ship. "The geth didn't damage our ship. Long as we get out of here before reinforcements show up, we'll be fine."

Tali was quick to correct him, "Actually, I won't be going with you. I'm joining Commander Shepard."

Reegar took it better than he could have. "I'll pass the data to the Admiralty Board and let them know what happened. She's all yours now, Shepard. Keep her safe."

Shepard grinned, "Trust me, I will."

* * *

Miranda demanded that Shepard brief all the recruits in the Conference Room. Jacob broke the ice, "Cerberus saw footage of you in action, Tali'Zorah. We're looking forward to having you on the team. Your engineering expertise will really benefit the mission."

Tali refroze the ice and put a layer of water on to boot. "I don't know who you are, but Cerberus threatened the security of the Migrant Fleet. Don't make nice."

That was a little far, "Tali, Cerberus is a bunch of ignorant terrorist bastards. But Jacob is a good man."

Jacob added to Shepard's defense, "I wasn't part of what happened to the Migrant Fleet, but I understand your distrust. I hope we'll get past that as we work together."

Tali the one of Shepard's closest friends, so her next words were like a mix of venom and honey. "I assumed that you were undercover, Shepard. Maybe even planning to blow Cerberus up. If that's the case, I'll loan you a grenade. Otherwise I'm here for you. Not for them."

Shepard smiled, at least she was here for him. "If it helps Tali, check out the Normandy while you're here. We've gotten a few significant upgrades."

Jacob added, "I'll get Tali'Zorah the necessary security clearance to access our systems."

Tali icily replied, "Please do. I can't be a part of your team if I don't know how the ship works."

As she began to walk out she insisted, "Just remember Shepard, Cerberus wasn't our friend when we went up against Saren. I'll be in engineering."

Then Jacob decided to do something stupid. He brought up EDI. "Don't forgot to introduce yourself to EDI, the ship's new artificial intelligence."

Tali was in the doorway when she turned and aimed a glare at Jacob.

Jacob just looked at Shepard, "What did I do?"

Shepard sighed and left the room. He needed to sleep for a bit. His head still felt warm from the colossus' shots. Then he would talk to Tali and make his rounds.

* * *

Why the hell is it that I only get inspiration at four in the morning? I swear to god, at this rate by the end of the summer my eyes are going to look like I got punched in the face twenty times. The bags under my eyes are that big. Anyway, tell me what loyalty missions you want me to do, and how I did in the combat scenes.


	12. Relationships and Porn

Damn, I'm really pumping these things out. Also I'm writing new chapters to this fanfic quickly, OH! Anyway, enjoy. By teh way: Fans keep reviewing and telling me your answers to these questions:

1. Should my sequel to this fanfic be written in third person limited like this or first person (Shepard's view using I and My)?

2. What loyalty missions should I write as chapters and what loyalty missions should I reduce to paragraphs in one big loyalty mission chapter?

3. How am I doing on combat scenes and love scenes?

4. What background couples should I do? I was thinking of Liara/Feron or Javik in ME3 and maybe Ashley/James in ME3 too.

5. Should the ME3 part of this be a new fanfic or more chapters into this?

**6. You're awesome! Have a cookie! Thanks for reading this far into the fanfic! Or just being a jackass and just skipping to this part!**

So have some filler!

* * *

**"No one would care that much. He would pass away and they would move on, complete the mission. But he couldn't raise his pistol. He wouldn't kill again. Revenge would not control him."**

For the first time in weeks, Shepard slept well. The return of Tali into his life gave him purpose. So after he woke up, he showered, put on clothes, and went down to engineering where he knew Tali would be. Despite the fact that it wasn't her shift.

Once the doors were open, she turned around to greet him, "John! I was wondering when you would stop in to see me."

Shepard grinned, "Yeah, well saving you from hundreds of geth tires me out a bit."

Tali leaned back slightly onto her engineering board. "Really? Because back on the old Normandy you killed thousands of geth and you barely slept."

Shepard decided to make another quip, "Well, being a zombie slows me down a bit. Besides, back on the old Normandy you kept me company."

Shepard could practically feel Tali blush. "Speaking of which, how's the new Normandy treating you, Tali?"

Tali turned her head to reinspect her engineering panel, "It's nice, but I miss the familiar faces. Engineer Adams, Pressly, even Wrex."

"NO ONE CARES! GO FUCK UPSTAIRS! LET ME SLEEP!"

Shepard looked down, to the source of the voice, "Uh...that's Jack. Our resident convict." He raised his voice so Jack could hear him, "Maybe if you had chosen to have an actual room instead of a hidey hole under engineering, you could sleep better."

He could swear he heard Jack mumbling to tell him to fuck off, but he didn't really care. "She has a point though, maybe we should head to my room to catch up."

Tali nodded and followed Shepard into the elevator up. Tali pressed the button to stop on the third floor, though. "John before we do that, can we talk to Garrus for a moment? I'd like to hear why he has a giant scar across his face."

Shepard smirked, "Because he hasn't learned how to dodge rockets yet."

The elevator stopped, and they both exited. When they walked into the Main Battery, Garrus greeted them with "Hey Tali...Shepard."

It was obvious he was less pleased to see the later than the former. Cynthia was next to him, so Shepard had his way out. "Oh, sorry. Are we intruding?"

Garrus took a moment to say, "No. Not at all."

What ensued was a long, awkward conversation that just wouldn't end. Eventually Shepard managed to make an excuse to leave, and he pulled Tali with him.

On the elevator ride back up to his room Tali brought up the talk, "What happened between you and Garrus? The room was so tense I was just waiting for you to make an excuse to leave."

Shepard's eyes started vacantly staring at the wall. "I don't know. For some reason he seems mad at me for something, and I have no idea what. Every time I get in a conversation to ask him, he just says he's calibrating the guns."

Tali shrugged and walked into Shepard's cabin. "...Roomy. On the Flotilla the rooms are compressed into small spaces so that we have more room. Mine was one of the biggest around, much to my protest; and it was barely half this size."

Shepard follow Tali's gaze across the room, "Yeah, there are perks to working with Cerberus."

Tali shot a troubled look at Shepard and took a seat on his couch. "Shepard...why **are** you working with Cerberus?"

Shepard looked down for a moment, before pulling a remote out of a drawer in his desk and pressing a button. "EDI, shut off your Camera and audio feeds for this floor." He was answered with an omnipresent, "Understood, Shepard."

"Tali, I have no intention of becoming a pawn of Cerberus. Trust me."

Tali looked around, "Shepard, there are recording devices lining every inch of the ship! And I doubt Cerberus would give anything to the Alliance. I think The Illusive Man is manipulating you."

Shepard sat down on the opposite end of the couch before responding, "What do you think the button was for? I had Mordin whip together a basic lightweight EMP device. It temporarily disabled the recording devices. I'll add to the records later that we went through an electrical storm and it disabled my recording devices. For now, we can talk freely."

Tali had to admire his observational skills in that matter. "Shepard, I do trust you. But I don't trust Cerberus. I have to ask: when our mission is done, what are you going to do?"

Shepard didn't even hesitate: "Make The Illusive Man choose between destruction or subservience to the Alliance to fight the Reapers. But forget that for now, we haven't seen each other for a while."

Tali paused a moment to think about what to say, she settled for "So how are you going to explain to the Council who Cynthia is?"

Shepard smirked, "Yeah, we had this conversation. First off, I'm not planning on talking to the Council for a while. Second, Cynthia is essentially my sister, so I guess we have to explain that to Anderson or someone high up and have them slip in fakes files."

Tali lightly laughed, "Either that or you could break into C-Sec and hack those files in."

Shepard smiled, "I'd love to, but I would prefer to be a dead man associated with terrorists than an alive man who breaks into C-Sec."

After a few moments the question that they both feared came up, at the same time. "So where do we stand?"

Shepard's expression went solemn, "I went to the middle of geth space and fought a colossus for you. I think you know where I stand."

Tali slowly added, "It's been two years but I never forgot you. I mean, a young woman gets rescued by a dashing commander who lets her join his crew and then goes off to save the galaxy? I don't know about you, but I don't tend to forget that."

Shepard smirked again, and he stood up. Tali thought he was going to ask her to leave for the time being, instead he picked her up, and despite all her squealing, slung her over his shoulder, and lightly tossed her in the bed.

She exerted a genuine laugh this time and playfully said, "Shepard! What're you doing?" Shepard fell down besides her, "Well, you can't lift me, and someone had to do it!"

Shepard put his arm over her and Tali settled in. It wasn't exactly where they were two years ago, but it was more than enough.

* * *

Cynthia was more than patient with Garrus, but all he talked about was his revenge. Sometimes they veered off that, but it all boiled down to revenge. The only thing that would bring him closure was finding the traitor he had in his team, Sidonis. So Cynthia joined Garrus in tracking him down. They were close to a breakthrough. It wouldn't be long before Garrus could finally get his closure.

All Cynthia wanted was to see him the way he was before. Eager, loyal, strong. Right now he was bitter, pessimistic and overall only a shell of what he was. And once he has done whatever he thinks needs to be done, they can...talk for real.

After all, she was going to hell and back, why not have something to come back for?

* * *

Shepard woke up with his arm around Tali. So no way to determine whether or not this was a good dream or not. Than EDI interrupted, "Shepard, we're one hour out from Illium."

Yeah. This was real. Shepard went through his normal routine, and by the time he got out of the shower fully clothed, Tali was gone.

* * *

Tali was just in the elevator going down when Kelly came in on the second floor. That little event became a massive pain in the ass. Kelly is a gossip, and she checked EDI's elevator camera to find out where Tali was coming from. By lunch, everyone thought they were sleeping together.

Shepard was ready to leave to recruit Thane Krios and Samara. Apparently, Kelly even blabbed to cripples who spent their whole day in the cockpit. "So Shepard, I heard that Tali spent the night in your cabin. So that's why she looked so happy today."

Shepard silently nodded, "Relax, Joker. This isn't one of your pornos. It'll be a while before that happens."

Joker nodded, "Yeah that's what I- WHAT! So you and Tali? And my porn? How do you know about my...um...okay..."

The only people who knew Tali and Shepard were in a relationship were them, Garrus and Cynthia. So on that day an achievement for all of humanity was achieved.

Shepard shut Joker up.

* * *

Yeah I have no fucking idea how to write love scenes. I know tragedy, a bit of comedy, but not romance. So why did I choose to write a romance story?...Shut up.


	13. Change

So this is kind of short filler, but I am releasing it on the 2 month anniversary of my publishing of this fanfic. So YAY ME! Did you bring the champagne? No? You forgot! That's it! I'm tired of you! We're breaking up you insensitive jerk! Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, ANSWER THE QUESTIONS FROM LAST CHAPTER AND REVIEW WITH REAL DETAILS.

* * *

**"He was isolated, alone. Except for her. All his friends had denounced him. He had nothing to lose. So why couldn't he do this? It would be so easy. But he wasn't that man. He was honorable. He wasn't a traitor. He would rather die. So he would die."**

He pulled the mask off of her. She was beautiful. Perfect. Magnificent. He grabbed her and slowly removed the other parts of her suit. That night they were as one. Writhing flesh, perfectly in unison. It was all that he had dreamed of and more. It was fantastic.

Then the Collectors struck. Their first shot sent pieces of the ship flying. The next slammed into the bridge. He knew that everyone out there, Kelly, Joker, they were almost certainly dead. Slowly, beam after beam, the Collectors ripped through the Normandy, killing everyone he had gathered. Thane, Samara, Tali. Garrus. He scrambled to put his suit on, just as he finished the door to his room opened.

Tali was finishing putting on the last part of her suit, Cynthia barged in and yelled, "Shepard! The Collectors are here! We need to-"

Another beam pierced the ship, breaking the first layer of the ceiling. The resulting explosion blew Cynthia back to the elevator door. The next explosion emanated from the elevator shaft. Once it stopped, Shepard ran out, only to see his clone's charred corpse, only a few spots of flesh were still intact. She wasn't lucky enough to be dead, she was still alive.

Just barely, she clung to life like the fighter she was. He could barely hear her exasperated voice leak out through burned lungs and a lipless mouth, "Help... help..." before a part of the ceiling collapsed and barricaded Shepard from reaching her. In all likelihood she was either crushed or finally dead from her burns.

Everything was going to hell, he could barely think, he certainly couldn't talk. He turned around, and just as he did the Collector ship's beam ripped through the Normandy's hull into Shepard's cabin, exposing them to the void of space. Once the beam dissipated he could clearly see Tali clinging for dear life to the ceiling, trying to pull herself back in. She was about to be spaced!

He pushed his way over, kicking off of and destroying the glass case he held his model ships in. He was so close, he held out his hand to her, and with her free hand she reached out to him. They weren't linked by a communications channel, so he could only barely hear her yell "John, you have to stop the Reapers!" A piece of debris from his room hit her, sending her hurtling off into space. He could see her floating away clearly. He died from them doing that last time, there was no chance she would survive. He had lost her. Again.

Fuck it all. He couldn't do it again. Not without her. Not without any of them. He had lost everything. So he rebuilt his life. And he had just lost it again. Shepard always kept a pistol in his room in case of emergency. This was an emergency. He wouldn't survive this. There was no possible way he would choose to prolong it. He located the drawer that held his pistol bouncing around next to his bed.

He pushed himself over to the drawer and opened it. Sure enough, his pistol was in the first drawer. He pulled it out. Would he do this? Could he? Fuck it, he could, he would, and he had to. This was inevitable. Tali was gone. Garrus was gone. Cynthia was gone. Mordin, Grunt, Miranda, Jacob, Chakwas, Zaeed, Kasumi. All dead. He was certain. He pulled up his holographic view of the ship on his HUD. No escape pods had been launched. They were all dead.

He aimed the pistol to his head. His life was terrible. He lost everything twice. Twice! WHY? What horrible thing had he done? He had killed and murdered and hurt. He had killed people who deserved a second chance. But that was so long ago. He still held in his mind that he had killed and gotten people killed. He still held that he was a bastard who deserved nothing more. But Tali, Garrus, Cynthia. They didn't deserve this. The others on this ship were as a whole innocent and good people. And now they were innocent and good corpses.

Fuck it all, he was sure they had come for him. To kill him. They would get what they came for. He aimed the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Shepard bolted upright panting, _"My god, holy shit. Is that what's in my head? Jesus, I'm fucked up." _Shepard caught his breath and turned on the lights in his room. He was in his bed. His ceiling didn't have a hole in it. His room was intact. The model ships in his glass case were there and the case was intact. Why the hell did he care about that? Tali wasn't here, she was working in engineering. He looked up, his natural reaction when he was about to talk to EDI, "EDI, has anything happened while I was sleeping?"

EDI sounded out, "Shepard, you have been asleep 23 minutes. In that time, there have been no particularly noticeable events. We are on course to Illium and everyone is accounted for. No damage to the ship has been sustained."

She knew the routine. He had similar nightmares about every other day. Every time, he would wake up and ask what had happened. Every time she responded with that, accounting for crew members, damages to the ship, and destination. And he was always only asleep for a few minutes. His record was an hour. He sighed, and turned the lights back off. "Wake me when we're close to Illium."

Seeing Tali was the only thing that could give him his peace. Peace. Such an odd feeling now. And always. Maybe one day, when the Reapers were dead and the galaxy was perfect, he could rest. He could feel peace. But for now, only Tali gave him that. Seeing her made him feel, if just for a second, like all that mattered was the two of them. Then, after those three seconds, he began to worry about the lives at stake again.

If his previous attempts at rest were any evidence, he would wake about four more times before he finally got to sleep for an half an hour. Half an hour of sleep. That was all he got now. Maybe when he had the next two members of his team he could rest. Ha. Like that was going to work.

* * *

So Liara T'Soni was famous. She had paid the Normandy's docking fee and one of her agents had come to request that Shepard come talk to her. Naturally, he had invited his standard squad of Cynthia, Tali, and Garrus.

The rest of the crew was also walking around; they were on temporary shore leave.

Kasumi looked around and said, "Towers, traffic, lights and asari, everywhere you look. I thought about living here for a while, but everybody is so tight ass. It's all about money to these people. I do what I do for the love of it. These people do it because they don't know any better."

With that she walked off. _"I hope to god she doesn't get caught stealing something." _She would probably steal something. She wouldn't get caught. But something she said was somewhat disturbing. It was the difference between him pre and post death. Before he was a tight ass who only believed in the mission. Tali tried pull the stick out of his ass, she just got a splinter.

Now he cared about more than the mission. Sort of. The mission chose the paths in his life, but the people created the paths. What kind of shit was that? He needed to stop thinking. The point was, he was gingerly pulling the stick out of his ass and turning from Garrus into Kasumi. Shit, was becoming Kasumi a good thing? Whatever.

According to EDI, Liara was an information broker and she might have info about Thane Krios and Samara. It wasn't like Shepard needed an ulterior motive to go see an old frien-well actually...

He hadn't contacted anyone else so that they wouldn't have to deal with his second death if the suicide mission lived up to its title.

Shepard was heading towards Liara's office; when he heard a voice call his name, "Excuse me! Excuse me, are you Commander Shepard?"

Shepard turned around and walked to the source of the voice, a purple asari. "You're Commander Shepard? I saw your... I guess you would say your aura. I'd recognize you anywhere. I was asked to give you a message if I saw you. It's from a friend you made on Noveria."

Noveria? Wow. That was so long ago. "I met a lot of people on Noveria. Could you be more specific?"

"I believe the message itself should make it clear." The asari walked forward and her eyes rolled back slightly, turning her eyes entirely white. _"From a friend on Noveria... who is the friend on Noveria... friend on-WHAT THE HELL?"_

The asari's voice became monotone, "Shepard. We hide. We burrow. We build. But we know that you seek those who soured the songs of our mothers. When the time comes, our voice will join with yours, and our crescendo will burn the darkness clean. Thank you, Shepard. The rachni will sing again, because of you."

Oh crap, the rachni were taking thralls. He released the rachni with the condition that this wouldn't happen. "I released you when you promised me that you would live in peace! You can't just possess any random person and take over their minds like this!" The asari raised her hand, her eyes returned to normal and in her normal inflection she said, "Peace, Shepard."

"The Rachni Queen does not control my thoughts. That was just the message I was asked to deliver. I encountered her on an uncharted world. She saved my life. More than that, she gave me a purpose. They are an amazing people Shepard. The galaxy owes you a great debt for giving them a second chance."

Did it though? The release of the rachni was a decision Shepard had griped over for a long time back on the original Normandy. But the assurance of genocide outweighed the possibility of war. He didn't want to hear about this. If they became aggressive, he would put them down himself. If not, he would help them when he could.

Shepard nodded, "Alright. If you can pass a message back, tell her that I'm watching. I don't regret setting her free, tell her not to change that. Also, tell her to contact me if she needs help."

"You won't regret a thing. She seeks only peace. Also, I will try to pass your message along. Be well, Commander Shepard. You will not see me again." The asari bowed slightly and left.

_"Please god, don't make me regret saving the Rachni Queen."_ Everyone said he was always doing the right thing, that he was a hero. Really, he was playing with fire and he just had to wonder whether he ignited a forest or a fireplace.

Garrus was looking off into the Illium skyline. It was beautiful. Garrus wanted to ruin it. "We were always told that Illium is one of the safest places in the galaxy... until you fell off the grid. Sign the wrong contract, join up with the wrong company, or walk down the wrong alley, ant it's as dangerous as anywhere else. Don't let this place fool you. It's no safer here than Omega."

Shepard joined Garrus leaning on the railing of the building they were on. "At least here the scenery is prettier when you get nailed in the face with a rocket."

Garrus didn't bother responding. As soon as they got in an actual conversation, he got left in the cold. What an asshole.

Tali gave him an out by starting to discuss quarian culture and relations. "Very few quarians ever set foot here. Illium doesn't allow the flotilla to approach beyond a certain distance. This is the greatest planet in the galaxy for those who can afford it, and they work very hard to keep the quarian fleet away."

Shepard intently listened to Tali talk, Garrus fiddled with mechanics in the background, and Liara was sitting around in an unfortunately-located office. Just like old times.

Unlike old times however, Liara was working in an office. Why she would choose to sell her soul for an office was beyond him. It wasn't like her. If he was going to sell his soul, he'd at least get a couple hundred thousand credits for it. Oh, and also unlike old times, Garrus wanted to shove his rifle up Shepard's ass and start firing... Maybe Shepard should get bulletproof underwear. Probably not. But maybe.

Time to go. Shepard got Garrus and Tali, but he couldn't find Cynthia. After a few moments, he saw her in a crowd at a kiosk yelling, "Sell! Sell for 500 credits! Buy 30 stocks of ExoGeni!

He tapped her on the shoulder, and she whacked him in the face with the back of her hand, "Go away Garrus, I'm making money."

Shepard grabbed her shoulder and corrected, "It's John, Cynthia."

Cynthia whacked him in the face again and reiterated, "Go away John, I'm making money."

Shepard pulled his retractable helmet up (she could hit really hard) and glanced over her for a moment. Before his death he could lift slightly over his weight, 190 pounds of pure muscle. Now, with skeletal reinforcements, he could probably lift maybe 1.5- 2 times that. At most, Cynthia was his around 170 pounds, . He could do this.

He waited for her to get to a stopping point, then he lifted her by the waist and lifted her back to the bottom of the stairs to Liara's office.

Cynthia didn't take it well, "What the hell! Go away! I just made us 2000 credits! You can go look through a box, just let me do this!"

_"Holy shit, 2000 credits? In three minutes?" _Shepard turned her around, "Once you meet Liara, you can go do... that, all you want. But I figured you would rather meet an old friend than get a few extra credits."

Cynthia glared at him, "... Yeah, okay. But you're telling Grunt that he's not getting that new action figure."

Garrus snorted, "Grunt collects action figures?"

Tali looked at him, "If you mock him in person, do me a favor and let me film it."

Garrus shot her an odd look. "You're **so** mean. And I'm okay with that."

Once Cynthia was done talking to Shepard, she shot over her shoulder, "Like you had a choice."

Garrus just shook his head.

Shepard could hear the bartering and arguing of the traders to his side as he ascended the stairs to Liara's office. Once he reached the top, he was greeted by Liara's assistant. "Hello, Commander Shepard. Liara will be pleased to see you. I'm Nyxeris."

"Thank you Nyxeris." Shepard said as walked into Liara's office.

Once he walked in, he could see Liara talking to a hologram of a man and saying, "Have you ever faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."

Wait... holy crap! Those were the exact words the Matriarch Benezia had said on Noveria two years ago. Wow, this place was like a monument to Shepard's actions from that planet.

"I'll make it simple. Either you pay me, or I flay you alive. With my mind." Once Liara noticed Shepard out of the corner of her eyes, she cut the hologram, turned and remarked, "Shepard! Nyxeris, hold my calls." Liara held out her arms and embraced Shepard, an action he reciprocated.

Already this was off to a better start than with Ashley. Liara took her seat as she continued "Ah...Shepard. My sources said you were alive, but I never believed. It's very good to see you. And you too, Tali, Garrus. And... I don't believe I know you."

Bypassing the obvious question (since when did Liara have sources?) Cynthia was quick to respond, "I'm his sister. Well, technically I'm his clone."

Liara turned around; her office had a beautiful view of the Illium skyline. "Interesting. Nice meeting you. Well, I'm doing well. I've been working as an information broker. It's paid the bills since you...well, for the past two years. And now you're back, gunning for the Collectors and Cerberus." She took a seat at her desk.

Shepard raised an eyebrow and took a seat, while the rest of his team took their cue to leave. "Huh, that's not exactly public knowledge."

"Neither is you being alive, Shepard. Information is my business now." Liara replied. "And if you need information on finding people for your mission, I'm happy to help."

He knew the answer, but he still had to ask. "What about you Liara? I could use your help."

The answer was exactly what had been expected, "I can't. Shepard, I'm sorry. I have commitments here. Things I need to take care of."

That sounded...bad. The last time he had a thing that needed to be taken care of, he ended up dead for two years.

"What kind of things do you need to take care of? Are you in trouble?"

"No, no trouble. But it's been a long two years. I had things to do while you were gone. I have debts to repay...Listen, if you want to help, I need someone with hacking expertise, someone I can trust. If you could disable security at key points around Illium, you could get me information I need. That would help me a great deal."

Shepard leaned over the desk, "What's this all about, Liara? Can't you just talk to me?"

"Don't you think I want to, Shepard. This isn't because I don't trust you. This is Illium. Anything I say is probably being recorded."

Oh. Shit. Cloning was deemed illegal because it was believed that it would lead to complicated medical issues and persecution. It was also believed that, similar to with AI research, the subjects could separate from civilization and attack.

So with audio evidence, they could be arrested. Even a Spectre would barely have a chance to explain before being imprisoned. Than again, the crew was composed of terrorists, convicts, zombies, and vigilantes. A clone wouldn't change much.

Shepard sighed, "Alright, Liara. If it'll help you, I'll take care of it." Liara also told him about Samara and Thane, her information brokering was very useful.

But she had been surprisingly impersonal.

She had changed. Than again, everyone had. Tali was more mature, older. Garrus was a resentful ass. Ashley had no more faith in him. With Wrex...that was going to be tough if he met him. He would either have to be ready for a punch or a handshake. Either way he was walking away with broken bones.

And him...he had changed too. He wasn't sure how but he had an idea why. Maybe it was the stress of going on a suicide mission, maybe it was hatred at the world that had moved on without him.

He put it out of his mind as he walked down the stairs to the trading floor. He had a favor to do for a friend. A favor hacking terminals...like...like...fuck. He was Liara's god damn tool. Whatever, that was paranoia speaking. _"Ha. Like I have paranoia. I trust the Cerberus members on my ship, despite the fact that I know they work for The Illusive Man not me. Liara is using me like a pawn, despite the fact that she's treating me as a friend. I know that as certainly as I know Miranda is reading my e-mails."_

After that, Shepard went around talking to people. Gianna Parasini, Ereba and her krogan boyfriend (he didn't get enough damn money to be a relationship councilor, but the discount she gave him was nice), Shiala from Feros, and Seryna, who told him where to get Thane Krios and offered her help in reaching him. After that, he had some time to kill, just a hour before they had to go track down Thane. He went back once he was done hacking per Liara's request.

He walked back to her office and walked in to be greeted by, "Shepard! It's good to see you came so quickly. Thank you for getting me that system data."

She stood up and handed him a credit chit, "Here. It's not much, but hopefully it will help you on your mission."

They both sat down and Liara continued, "Do you remember the Shadow Broker? With the data you got me, I may be able to find information caches from his agents."

Why would she need those? Why did she need to get information from the Shadow Broker? Unless it was for her safety... "Are you on the run from the Shadow Broker? I can help you."

Liara thoughtfully looked to her side, "Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the Shadow Broker is on the run from me. We crossed paths not long after you died. Since then I've been working to take him down. With this data I'm a step closer."

So that guy she was talking to was just practice for when she was going to flay the Shadow Broker. Liara was fanatical, angry, and in a mind-flaying mood. He had never seen her like this. When Shepard killed her mother she was kinder and more forgiving.

True, it was necessary for Benezia to die. But still, Liara had significant reason to be at least a little mad and resentful. He wouldn't blame her. So what could possibly have her this mad. "Liara, I've never seen you ready to execute someone in cold blood. What did the Shadow Broker do to you?"

Almost immediately a look of guilt and anguish washed over Liara as she explained, "I was on a job with a friend. The Shadow Broker's people caught us. My friend didn't escape. I don't know if he's dead or being interrogated, but I need to find him. I owe him my life. And I need to make the Shadow Broker pay for what he did."

Owing someone a life. He knew what that was like. He owed too many people his life. Kaiden had died so they could continue after Saren. Major Kyle. Everyone from Torfan died because of him. In a way, the crew of the Normandy. They gave him purpose to live and many of them died while he lived. Miranda had revived him, fuck The Illusive Man. Miranda gave him his life back. His miserable, fucked up life. Whoop-dee-fucking doo.

What he was planning to say was a terrible idea. Horrible. Why would he possibly say this? He couldn't. He wouldn't. She would be in danger again. Why the hell did he want to pull her back in? He wanted nothing less than to get out! Oh he was saying it. Great. "You can't come with me because you're after the Shadow Broker? What if I help you find him?"

Liara responded easier to the question than Shepard had expected. With the same answer he had expected. "I'm sorry, Shepard. The galaxy doesn't work that way. I need to find leads, trace information. I need to work. I can't do that on the Normandy. I wish I could."

Shepard nodded and then asked the question he really didn't know the answer too. "Why? Why do you want to be able to be on the Normandy? I ask you to come because I need help, but given the chance I would run away and never look back. I hate it there. When you're not almost getting killed, you have to be reminded of the fights. The deaths. Every time I walk onto the Normandy I think of everyone who is dead. Kaiden, Pressly, every single engineer and soldier."

Liara looked deeply surprised at Shepard. He never opened up like this. The only person he talked like this to was Tali. And not even this much to her. He was just a tight-ass on the old Normandy. A friendly tight-ass, but still. Now he was more open. He had changed. Whether that was for the better or not was arguable.

Liara's initial shock wore off but she didn't speak, she just stared for a moment, "I know it's hard Shepard. But you have friends who are willing to help you. You have the ability to right wrongs, to see the beauty of the galaxy. The things you see in the Normandy are terrible Shepard, but they're beautiful and you're so gifted to see them, especially with your friends. I wouldn't trade that if I were you."

Shepard nodded a few times. "That makes one of us. Let me know if you need more help."

Out of the corner of his eye as he stood up and walked away, he could see her face. His answer wasn't exactly satisfactory to her. All he wanted was peace. A day when he could stop fighting, stop killing, stop dying. And just experience peace.

* * *

Cynthia stared at the beautiful Illium skyline. It was magnificent. The view was even better from the top of the building they were on. Garrus was with her, Tali was looking for Shepard.

The rest of them were running around pulling heists and buying guns. She had continued to try talking to Garrus, eventually it all went back to revenge.

She had a brief, perverted thought. _"If he keeps acting like this, he's never going to get laid.__" _She pushed it out of her head. She just wanted to talk. But she couldn't even do that. She and Garrus were close to finding Sidonis.

For now, there was a romantic tension between them. Too bad that with revenge clouding his mind, Garrus couldn't see the obvious. Maybe the rocket to the face had messed up his eyes. Maybe it was his hearing. She was trying to make this clear, and he was easy to read.

Shepard had found the love of a quarian in his arms, why couldn't she find love in the arms of a turian? They were friends before she existed, and now that she was there, maybe they could be more. Or maybe the idiot turian wouldn't figure any of it out and she would have to ask it.

She loved the exact degree of an idiot he was, but seriously, could he be denser? If she jumped up and down in front of him naked he wouldn't get it. He would think it was a human ritual asking for money or something. Well, it was one type of ritual to get money.

Besides Garrus, she was on good terms with everyone on the Normandy. That was nice. Tali and Kasumi were Cynthia's best friends. She thought being a clone like this would disturb her more. She had one thing to do for her to gain total satisfaction with the situation. But otherwise, things were perfect. Flying through space, saving the galaxy with good friends, and if Garrus pulled his head out of his ass, a great... paramour.

She could hear two people walking behind her. Tali's voice confirmed her suspicions, "I'm back, and with John." John was smiling. Garrus didn't even bother to turn around. For some reason John seemed to think just because Garrus was sulking, she was in on it. She had absolutely no idea what was up with their little feud. She just hoped they fixed it before things got bad.

Shepard became angry more often than he would care to admit. It was natural with his job and life, but it could still scare the shit out of people. Once literally, before the Normandy, Shepard got mad and an apparently incontinent batarian crapped himself.

After only a few nice minutes, Shepard had to bring up the reason they were there. "Thane Krios is our next recruit target. I've arranged for us to go once the sun sets."

Cynthia sighed, "Can't the Assassin wait in an air vent for a day? This place is nice."

Tali playfully added, "John, just shut up and enjoy the view. We'll deal with that later."

John smiled. He lived for days like these. He lived his life for a day of piece. And after a long day of just talking, instead of pure fighting, it was close enough for now.

* * *

I thought the last scene was nice.


	14. Arguments and Recruitment

REVIEW! Also, Thane and Samara. And Garrus/Shepard stuff. Oh! And I need a beta reader. Someone to read my drafts so that they can review early on and help me decide on what to change. If you're interested, PM me.

* * *

Shepard reviewed the teams again.

Team1-Strike Team (Upper Levels)

-Garrus

-Tali'Zorah

-Cynthia

-Shepard

Team2-Sweep/Rescue Team (Lower Levels)

-Miranda (Team Leader)

-Grunt

-Jacob

-Jack

-Zaeed

-Kasumi

-Mordin

Cynthia had just picked up a tactical cloaking device and gotten basic biotic implants installed. He wasn't paranoid, and even though she supposedly had a model that supposedly wouldn't cause migraines or other problems; he didn't really need biotics.

And he didn't like stuff in his head. Not paranoia, just distaste for head implants.

Everyone was going to the minimum, picking out specifics

Garrus and Tali went easily, Sniper Rifle and Assault Rifle; Shotgun and Pistol.

For Shepard and Cynthia, things were harder. They usually went in armed to the teeth. Heavy Weapons, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Pistols and Shotguns.

Had to go a little lighter though. Shepard ditched the Sniper and Shotgun, and just picked up an extra pistol. Cynthia ditched everything but her SMG and Pistol. Cynthia chose to go even lighter, giving Shepard her Omni-Blade. She had requisitioned it a while ago, by now she didn't want it.

The others had all cut down to two weapons to maintain minimal weight. They were going to have to prepare to pack on more though, Tali had helped Shepard put together a prototype for the M-920 Cain. It launched a 25 gram slug at a maximum of 5 km/s. It devastated everything. And for the suicide mission, every one of the squad members would carry in one of these 'Nuke Launchers'. The Collectors were screwed.

And so were the idiot Eclipse mercs in the tower. He had to pay for his contact, Seryna, to rent a giant truck just to take them all in. She explained for the third time, "The towers are heavily guard, and you'll find more resistance closer to the penthouse." Now something she hadn't said yet.

"So, this assassin- you planning to stop him."

Shepard double checked his weapons, "No. I'm here to make sure he survives."

She sounded interested about that. Pity she wouldn't hear more. They made a few swerves in traffic and another giant tower. "There they are: the Dantius Towers. You'll have to get up the second tower and cross the bridge to the penthouse. Her mercs will fight you every step, but it's your best chance."

He was about to ask a stupid question, but instead he realized that the reason they couldn't go up, is because a rocket would immediately send them back down.

Shepard looked at the towers again. He really hoped they weren't too late. Krios wouldn't wait around for Shepard. Especially not if he was accompanied by three highly trained kick-ass marines. Unless the Assassin decided he was strong enough to kill all three of them. Facing a highly trained, drell assassin. How fun.

The car came to a stop, and all of the squad rushed out. Eleven of the most deadly individuals in the galaxy. Seryna and Shepard shared a quick exchange, and she left. Time to get to work.

* * *

They were so close, just a few more stories up. They had already released about a dozen salarians from locked rooms. Thane had helped them stay alive, so at least he wasn't the type of assassin who killed civilians. Cynthia pressed the elevator button, and advised, "I think we should get into cover. There might be a lot of mercs in there."

Shepard nodded, "Tali, hide to the right of the elevator and Cynthia hide to the left. Garrus you and me-"

Garrus walked away, "I know what I'm doing, Shepard."

Shepard grabbed Garrus by his shoulder, "Garrus, I'm tired of your crap! Get your act together! You're becoming more of a liability than an ally, if you keep this crap up I'm leaving you here on Illium!"

Garrus turned around and stared at Shepard. Then the annoyed turian shoved Shepard back, "I don't need you, Shepard. I'm going to get in position and do my job. If you pulled your head out of your ass, maybe you could see that."

Shepard tried to grab the Garrus' arm again, but was met with a punch to the gut. Tali and Cynthia started to make a move towards them, but Shepard shook his head to indicate that they should stay there. "Garrus, this isn't the time. Just get back behind-"

Garrus growled lightly and said in his threateningly flanging voice, "Shepard, fuck you. That's what I was trying to do, but maybe now I should settle for throwing you at the mercs. While you get shot, I can take them down."

Once again Garrus pushed Shepard back. Okay, Garrus was a good man, he didn't deserve Shepard's retribution, there was no point in- Garrus pushed him again. Shepard slammed his hand into Garrus' jaw and kicked him back, onto the floor. "Garrus, I'm tired of your shit! Get into position or I'll throw you off this damn tower!"

Garrus looked momentarily terrified, Shepard hadn't ever been truly angry with anyone on his ship. He only ever got truly angry at his enemies, the Collectors, the Reapers, the geth, and Saren. He was not an easily angered man. He was always willing to forgive mercenaries if they gave him the choice to let them go.

So the fact that Garrus had been pissing Shepard off this much was terrifying, practically everyone he got angry with like this he killed. The terror on Garrus' face vanished instantly, he wasn't going to show weakness to this son of a bitch. He picked himself up, and walked back up to Shepard. The two were about to hit each other again when the elevator doors opened. At this point, both of the combatants were face to face.

The krogan in the elevator aimed his shotgun at the two of them, "You two, I don't know how the hell you got in here, but you're going to be telling the answers to Dantius or you're going to be falling off of this building with holes in your faces." The krogan shifted his hands on his shotgun and added, "Please choose the second option."

Shepard and Garrus didn't bother to look at the krogan or the two Eclipse mercenaries with him. They just continued to stare at each other. Shepard broke the silence, "On three?"

"On two."

"On one."

"Fuck it, Shepard. Let's do this."

The second he finished, Garrus spun and shot the krogan's shotgun out of his hands. Shepard leapt over the cover towards the elevator, Tali sprung out and shot the first Eclipse merc, Cynthia threw one off a ledge with her biotics; and Shepard got close to the krogan and pierced his head with an omni-blade stab.

The screaming of the krogan was cut short by a swift decapitation. Shepard dissipated his omni-blades and threw the corpse (and the head) of the krogan out of the elevator. "Garrus, when we get some down time we need to talk about this." The others joined him in the elevator, and Garrus scoffed. "Heh. I'll wear a helmet."

Shepard glared at him and pressed the button for the elevator to go up. Tali and Cynthia were just awkwardly staring at Garrus and Shepard. Thirty seconds it looked like they were going to kill each other, now they were back to just hating each other. Yay.

When the elevator doors opened, everyone could see an Eclipse merc contacting the rest of his squad.

Thankfully he said, "We don't need reinforcements. I'll take care of it. It's under control. I'll go down there myself."

Shepard aimed his pistol to the merc's head, "Turn around. Very slowly."

Shepard had no time to play the good guy, if he didn't hurry he would lose Thane. "Tell me where the assassin is and I might let you live."

The merc replied, "If I knew that, I wouldn't be wasting my time talking to you. You're not one of Nassana's mercs. Who are you?"

Shepard moved closer threateningly, "Answer my questions, and I'll let you go."

"Look pal, even if I knew where he was, I wouldn't tell you."

Shepard leaned in close. "Not the answer I was looking for."

If Shepard shot him, someone might hear. The merc crossed his arms, "I've got nothing more to say to you-" Shepard shoved him out the window and walked away. "How about goodbye?"

Cynthia and Tali shared a worried look. Shepard never would have done that before. He was under lots of stress, but nonetheless, shoving mercs out of windows wouldn't be an activity the old Shepard participated in.

* * *

In the process of moving up, Team 2 had secured the rest of the tower, Shepard had collected some random data he thought he heard a salarian looking for, and he had told Nassana that he was coming through an open comm link. Now the only thing that separated them from the penthouse was a bridge.

Shepard pulled out his pistols, and because omni-tools extend from the wrist, he initiated them too. "Alright. Tali, follow me. Cynthia and Garrus, take them down from a distance with biotics and sniper fire. Let's move. I don't want to miss Thane."

Everyone got ready, and then they burst onto the bridge. Shepard ran and jumped across the whole bridge, shooting who he couldn't stab. Tali cleaned up behind him with shotgun fire.

Cynthia used her biotics to fling any rockets fired at Tali and Shepard back at the enemy turrets. Garrus personally dropped five mercs, out of about twenty. They were dead in roughly twenty seconds.

Once inside the penthouse, they were greeted by three mercenaries. Nassana was there, continually insisting that it must be the team of four that were hired to kill her. He really didn't care.

It was somewhat important however, that it turns out he had helped her two years ago. She had used him to kill her criminal sister. Just when he thought he was going to have to shoot her, a rumbling sound was made in the ceiling.

Nassana ordered some of her squad to go check it out and was obviously about to say something, when a drell dropped in behind her and her mercs from a vent.

The drell snapped a merc's neck, punched another merc in the head, breaking his neck due to the force of the punch, shot the third merc, spun around and shot Nassana in the chest.

This was definitely Thane. He arranged Nassana's hands on her chest and arranged his own hands together to pray.

Cynthia just stared at Thane for a second, "Wow. Nice."

Garrus gestured off in the distance, "I would've just sniped her."

Tali looked over to Garrus, "She has bullet-proof glass. And besides, you're not that good of a shot."

Shepard ignored the conversation behind him and stepped forward, "I came a long way to talk to you."

Thane continued his prayer in a moment of silence. Then he said in a strange voice unique to drell, "One moment. Prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken."

Shepard looked at Nassana, "Do you really think she deserves it?"

Thane shook his head, "Not for her. For me. The measure of an individual can be difficult to discern by actions alone. Take you, for instance. All this destruction... chaos." He walked to the side of Nassana's desk and over towards the team.

Cynthia pulled up her helmet and put her hand next to it, "Team 2, proceed to the penthouse. The way is clear." She switched channels and added, "Requesting shuttle pick-up at penthouse." Cynthia retracted her helmet and continued to listen.

Thane took a brief moment to look at her before continuing himself, "I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me. Well... here I am."

Drell looked like an odd combination of fish, reptiles, and humans. Thane's eyes were as black as night, and he had gills. Shepard had never seen a drell in real life before. They were very rare.

Shepard smiled, "Here you are. Let's cut to the chase. I need you for a mission."

Thane turned his back slightly to the human, "Indeed?"

Shepard noticed the formal speaking of the assassin. At least he wasn't ill mannered. "You're familiar with the Collectors?"

Thane walked back to the window of the penthouse and replied, "By reputation."

Shepard crossed his arms, "They're abducting entire human colonies. Freedom's Progress was their handiwork."

Thane bowed his head slightly, "I see."

Cynthia added, "We're going after them."

Thane turned around, "Attacking the Collectors would require passing through the Omega 4 relay. No ship has ever returned from doing so."

Shepard grinned, "They said the same thing about Ilos."

Thane turned back towards the window, and the beautiful sunrise. Shepard joined him. "A fair point. You've made a career on performing the impossible."

There was lull in the conversation, followed by something rather surprising, "I'm dying. Low survival odds don't concern me. The abduction of your colonists does."

Shepard's smile turned into a grimace, "I'm... sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Thane shook his head, "Giving me this opportunity is enough. The universe is a dark place. I'm trying to make it brighter before I die. Many innocents died today. I wasn't fast enough and they suffered. I must atone for that. I will work for you, Shepard. No charge."

Atoning for deaths was something most people in the room could relate to. Shepard shook the drell's extended hand, and they all went outside to wait for the shuttle.

* * *

The debriefing was rather tense. Jacob was very uncomfortable with an assassin on the team. Thane was going to sleep in the Life Support room. Shepard went to go talk with Garrus while the rest of the team got ready to go get Samara.

As soon as Shepard walked in he was met with a comment from Garrus, "Get out."

Since Cynthia wasn't in the room, there was no one to stop Garrus from bring an asshole.

"Garrus, I'd like to talk about this."

"No, Shepard, you'd like to resolve this so we can all die as best friends for life."

"Garrus... how do turians relieve stress between people who have been fighting?"

Garrus turned around from the Main Battery Console, "Sparring. Why? How do humans relieve stress between people who have been fighting?"

Shepard shrugged, "I don't really know. Sex? By the way that's not happening."

Garrus did the turian equivalent of raising an eyebrow with his face. Shepard continued, "But, we can set up a sparring area on the fifth floor."

Garrus turned back around, "Fantastic, but I have work to do."

Shepard's voice got darker, "Garrus, our problems are starting to interfere with the mission. We need to fix things or we might kill each other or get each other killed in a battle."

Garrus turned around, this time with a blue fire in his eyes and a venom in his voice, "Shepard, the mission isn't everything. You died because of your damn mission. You scorned Tali because of your mission. You will die again if all you care about if this mission. A **suicide **mission, by the way. Go to hell, Shepard... But you can set up the fifth floor for sparring now. Because now I'd really love to kick your ass."

Shepard sighed, "Yeah, alright great. " Shepard left, and he saw Cynthia walking in as he did. She must be here for her daily visit. Great. Shepard walked past her and went down to the fourth floor.

He commissioned Grunt, Zaeed, and Jack to clean up the fifth floor so that the Hammerhead and the shuttle were far away from the center. He was just glad that all the machinery that was there was on the sides, instead of in the center.

After that was done he took a little time to think about something Garrus said, 'You scorned Tali because of your mission."

How did he 'scorn' Tali? Then it hit him. He chose the mission on Ilos instead of her. They could have been together, but he put the mission first. He decided that Tali couldn't get sick for the mission, and while maybe it was the right thing to do, it wasn't fair to her.

She had enough anti-biotics to avoid being sick, but he refused to be with her. He wouldn't make that mistake again. When Tali was ready this time, they would be together, and not even a random Collector attack would stop them.

With this positivity in mind, he gathered his standard squad of four. It was time to go get Samara on the team.

* * *

Shepard had just finished a lengthy conversation with a Detective Anaya. Apparently Samara would be a problem if he didn't get her out of the area in time. Detective Anaya would either be fired or killed by the Justicar.

To this, Shepard asked, "If an order is idiotic and going to get you killed, you have a right to not follow it."

Garrus sprang on this, "We can disobey suicidal orders? Why wasn't I told?"

Tali joined in on the teasing, "Because we only get suicidal orders about twice a day."

Cynthia grinned, "When Shepard starts escalating it above that, then we get to form a union."

Shepard was not amused. Without turning around he said, "Two things. First of all, most of the time, I'm not being stupid about it. Second, people on a suicide mission don't get to unionize against suicidal orders."

After a long explanation, and a long walk down to the crime scene (followed by an ass-whooping directed at some mercs nearby), Shepard arrived at the crime scene.

As soon as they walked through the door, a dead Eclipse merc slammed into the wall next to them. He could barely hear the two of them because they were a fair distance from the door, but he could see the asari he assumed to be Samara as well as another Eclipse member.

The Justicar was biotically charged, and apparently angry, because she sent the Eclipse member flying through the glass and in front of the door. Samara jumped out of the small room and used her biotics to glide down. She placed her heel on the Eclipse merc's neck and said, "What was the name of the ship she left on?"

He could barely hear the Eclipse member choke out, "Go to hell." Samara cocked her head a bit and calmly stated, "Find peace in the embrace of the goddess."

Then Samara twisted her heel, snapping the mercs neck. When Samara saw the team in the doorway, she introduced herself, "My name is Samara, a servant of the Justicar Code. My quarrel is with these Eclipse sisters, but I see four well-armed people before me. Are we friend or foe?"

Shepard chose to ignore the question and asked, "That merc was wounded and helpless. Do you just kill anyone who won't help you?"

Samara challenged, "If my cause is important enough, yes. Are you any different?"

A face of pain crossed Shepard's face, "I do my best to avoid killing. More often than not, I fail. But I never enjoy it. And I always have a good reason. Except for... one occasion."

Samara nodded and explained, "I answer to a code that is clearly defined. If my actions are true to that code, I am just. If they are not, I am unjust. I don't pretend it is a simple matter, or that it seems right to everyone. But I sleep well at night, and that is more than most can say. How may I be of service to you?"

Shepard was really hoping this could work, Anaya said that Justicars were drawn to impossible odds. This would be a nice test of that. "I'm going up against suicidal odds, and I need the best - that's you."

Samara seemed flattered, "I sense the truth in what you say, and it humbles me. But I seek an incredibly dangerous fugitive."

Samara began to slowly pace, "I cornered her here, but the Eclipse sisters smuggled her off-world. I must find the name of the ship she left on before the trail goes cold."

Detective Anaya walked in and next to Shepard, "I wish you were willing to go with the human, Justicar. I've been ordered to take you into custody if you won't leave."

Samara walked back to the doorway, "You risk a great deal by following your orders, Detective. Fortunately, I will not have to resist. My code obligates me to cooperate with you for one day. After that, I must return to my investigation."

Anaya sternly refused, "I won't be able to release you that soon."

Samara didn't even change her expression as she returned, "You won't be able to stop me."

Shepard thought it over for a second, "There must be some way we can all get what we need?"

"I see a way. While I am in custody, you find the name of that ship. Do that, and I will join you. Then the Code will be satisfied."

Shepard sighed, 24 hours to find some information from a group of powerful mercenaries. Wonderful. "Do you have any leads?"

Samara walked towards the doorway and Anaya. "The volus merchant, Pitne For, is tied to this. Eclipse mercs are preparing to kill him. Get the truth out of him. He may know a way into the Eclipse base."

Anaya walked up to Samara, "Well, I've got to get back to my station. And, I guess I've got to take you with me."

Samara nodded and simply said, "Thank you, Shepard."

* * *

Shepard walked behind Pitne For, and Pitne turned around and greeted him, "Hello again, *wheeze* Earth-clan. Did you speak to the detective?"

Shepard wasn't in the mood for games and idle conversation. He had a day before dozens of innocent people died. "Why are the mercs after you?"

Pitne For was stubborn, "*wheeze* I know nothing about any mercenaries, Earth-clan. *wheeze* I'm merely an innocent merchant trying to make his way in life."

Shepard pulled out his two pistols and initiated his omni-blades, aiming all four weapons at the volus. Pitne panicked a little and quickly spoke, "Oh-oh dear! *wheeze* Please put those away! I'll be cooperative, I swear!"

Shepard put all his weapons away and demanded, "Tell me everything." Tali and Cynthia shared another troubled look, but Garrus just didn't care.

Pitne started to finally divulge the important information, "I smuggled a chemical onto Illium that boosts biotic powers in combat. *wheeze* It also is toxic. I may have, um, *wheeze* forgotten to mention that to the Eclipse. *wheeze* So they are perturbed and want to kill me."

Shepard's expression darkened, "It sounds like you're a swindler and your actions finally caught up with you."

The volus agreed, " *wheeze* True and true. *wheeze* But I haven't survived as a merchant this long without being able to tell when there's a deal in the making *wheeze*... you want something."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "I need information they have, probably in their base. I need a way in."

Pitne quickly responded, "I do have a pass card they issued me to bring my goods in. *wheeze* Well, I had to return that one, but I happened to make a copy. *wheeze*"

For once, it was fortuitous that there was merchant scum littering the alleyways of an otherwise great planet.

Shepard reached for his pistol to threaten the volus again, but Pitne got scared and just offered him the card, "No! No-no-no! Take it! *wheeze* But be careful *wheeze* - each Eclipse sister commits a murder to earn her uniform. *wheeze* They are all dangerous."

Shepard nodded and turned around. The elevator was right behind him, the pass card just dropped the elevator down to a secret level. Time to kill some mercs.

* * *

His reconstruction had greatly increased Shepard's hearing, which made it that much easier to notice someone talking to themselves a room up ahead, "Oh goddess, please don't let them find me."

Shepard walked over to the room and opened the door, there was nothing visible, but someone was there. Shepard pulled out his pistol and aimed it at an asari who jumped out from behind cover.

The asari quickly started protesting, "Wait! Stop! I didn't fire my weapon once! I haven't even killed anyone!"

Shepard pulled out his other pistol, "Don't lie to me. To earn your uniform, each Eclipse Sister has to commit a murder. You're coming with me into custody."

The asari pulled out an SMG, and was about to say something before Shepard shot her twice in the head, and stabbed her once with each omni-blades. Shepard pulled his omni-blades out of the dead asari.

All of the members of the squad seemed slightly horrified at the quick brutality of their Commander.

Nonetheless, they kept silent and went with Shepard to continue onwards.

* * *

The gunship was almost down, Cynthia used her SMG to take down the glass on the outside of the gunship, and used her pistol to score a headshot on the driver. The gunship started spinning out of control, until it smashed into a wall, exploded and sending debris flying everywhere.

Tali dodged some flying debris, but a giant piece was flying at her. She closed her eyes and hit the ground, expecting to at least get a few bones crushed.

After a few seconds she opened her eyes and looked in front of her. Shepard was standing there, holding a massive piece of debris that must have weighed at least three hundred pounds.

Shepard was barely holding it. He was muttering something, which quickly became shouting something. "Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" Shepard managed to lightly throw the debris off the edge of the area they were at.

He took a deep breath, followed by another and another, "Wow. I... wasn't sure I could do that." Tali got up and hugged Shepard, "Thanks, John." Shepard grinned and let her go, "More of that later."

They proceeded into the next room, where Shepard noticed a gleaming datapad in the corner. He picked it up and muttered, "This looks like a shipping manifest. It shows that Pitne For sold 2000 units of Minagen X3 to the Eclipse. Along with 600 units of Red Sand. This will put him away for a long time."

Everyone else agreed, and Shepard put it in a spare compartment he had on his armor. N7 Armor came with dozens of compartments capable of storage for everything from weapons, to plant specimens.

Shepard went on into a hallway. For some reason, there was a volus at a vending machine. Maybe he was hungry. Shepard walked up to him, and he stumbled into Shepard's leg and fell backwards a bit.

Then, he began to flare up with biotic energy and he started yelling, "I am a biotic god! I think things - and they happen! Fear me, lesser creatures, for I am biotics made flesh!

Shepard couldn't help but chuckle. He was soon joined by Cynthia, Tali, and Garrus. Cynthia leant down, "You need help."

The volus was obviously high or something. His biotics faded and he objected, "You need help! You stand before the mightiest biotic ever. Yes, the asari injecting so many drugs into me was terrifying. But then I began to smell my greatness!"

This wasn't funny anymore. The volus was just acting stupid. Shepard rubbed his neck, he could definitely smell something.

Garrus looked at Cynthia, "Is greatness some volus term for shit? Because I think the drugs made him void his bowels."

Cynthia and Tali laughed, Shepard just stared at the poor little volus. That poor little guy went on, "They may laugh when I fall over, but they don't know what I know in my head - that I know that I am amazingly powerful. Fear me!"

Shepard narrowed his eyes a bit, "Are you part of Pitne For's trade group?"

The volus had been staring at a wall, but he turned around and answered, "When I was mortal I worked for Pitne. Poor soul is probably terrified that I have not returned."

Tali shook her head, "I doubt Pitne cares."

Cynthia agreed, "He didn't report that you were missing."

Garrus gazed at the 'biotic god'. "He seems to value money over friends."

The volus just said, "Bah! I will wreak a just revenge upon his people! But first... the leader of these mercenaries is in the next room."

Shepard looked over the speaker towards the door.

"I shall toss Wasea about like a rag doll!"

Cynthia walked behind Shepard, "John, this little guy couldn't tie his bootlaces, much less fight."

The volus heard her and responded, "I will tear her apart! My biotics are unstoppable!"

Tali kneeled down and said in a calm voice, "Wasea will tear you apart. Take a nap - you'll feel better."

The volus looked up at her as she stood again, "Are you mad? I'm unstoppable!" The volus turned aroundand rambled on.

Shepard decided to take pity on the volus and lightly pushed him. He hit the ground and started muttering, "But... great wind! Biotic god! I'm... I... what was I saying? I'm tired. You... may be right. Yes, I'm tired... I'll nap. Destroy the universe later..."

Garrus sarcastically remarked, "So much for godhood." as the volus stumbled off.

The team entered the next room, and the asari named Wasea put down the glass of alcohol she was drinking and remarked, "Everything's gone to hell since we smuggled that filthy creature off-world. First a justicar shows up, now you." She put her datapad down on her desk as well.

"At least I can take pleasure in turning your head into a pulpy mass!" She launched a crate of the Minagen X3 at the team, which they easily dodged. EDI had warned them that, while Minagen would cause problems in high doses, in smaller doses it would boost biotic power.

The only person this affected was Cynthia, but it was still useful info. She biotically lifted three containers of Minagen, and slammed them into the ground near her. "Ohhhhhh... my god. That feels sooooo goood. I wish you could all feel this." That was the umpteenth time she had said this during the mission. Her biotics started flaring up and she levitated as many crates of Minagen as she could and threw them at Wasea.

Wasea started glowing and levitating herself. The concentrated gunfire took her barriers down, but she started throwing numerous things around the room at everyone. Cynthia's eyes were bright blue by now, and she stopped the crates, throwing them to either side. She also pulled out her guns and started firing at the asari.

A few more Eclipse sisters came out, but they were almost immediately killed by the concentrated gunfire of the squad.

Once Wasea's armor was down, she fell down to the ground and started choking on the gases. The Minagen was starting to screw her up. She started choking and fell to the floor. All the crates that had been flung at her made her overdose. She collapsed onto the ground and coughed up some blood.

She spasmed a few times and continued coughing, until Garrus mercifully put a bullet through her head.

Shepard walked over as gas dissipated. Both him and Garrus said at the same time, "Promise me you'll never use this crap again, Cynthia?"

Cynthia's eyes returned to their normal color and she scoffed, "How stupid do you two think I am?"

Shepard smiled, and went over to check the datapad. "Whoever Samara is chasing left on the AML Demeter. Let's get this information to Samara, after we sweep the area." The team finished hacking terminals and bank accounts in a few minutes, and they left.

Shepard couldn't stop a grin from crossing his face. They just got an asari Justicar. They had assembled the team.

* * *

The walk to the station was entirely uneventful. Once they were right outside however, Pitne For began to ask about finding a shipping manifest. Shepard ignored him and walked into the police station, but not before telling Tali, "Keep him here. Catch him if he tries to get away."

The volus started panicking, "What? No! You have to give it to me! I'll pay you! Her reward will be a-" The door closed behind Shepard as he walked in.

"Samara, I've got the name of the ship. Your fugitive left here two days ago on the AML Demeter."

For the first time since they had met, Samara smiled, "Shepard, you impress me. You fulfilled your part of the bargain, and I will fulfill mine." She got off her position on an elevated ledge and walked over towards the table Detective Anaya was sitting at.

"I am ready to leave immediately, if that will satisfy your superiors, Detective?"

Anaya nodded, "You're free to go, Justicar. It has been an honor having you in my station."

With a hint of sarcasm, she added, "And it's nice you didn't kill me too."

Shepard smiled, "The Normandy is docked near the main trading floor. I'll see you aboard."

"I must be sword to your service so that I am never forced to choose between your orders and the Code."

Samara's eyes briefly glowed blue, and she knelt before him. "By the Code, I will serve you, Shepard. Your choices are my choices, your morals are my morals. Your wishes are my code." A brief flare of biotic energy appeared around her. She stood up and the biotic field disappeared.

Anaya looked at Shepard, "I never thought I'd see a justicar swear an oath like that."

Samara calmly looked at Shepard, "If you make me do anything extremely dishonorable, I may need to kill you when I am released from my oath."

Shepard's eyes widened, "Oh. I wasn't planning on anything like that... I can see that this is a very important act, Samara. Thank you."

"Truly, the life of a justicar can get lonely. I admit, I am looking forward to serving with a company of honorable heroes. Shall we return to your ship?"

Shepard raised a hand, "Okay, two things. First of all, I should warn you that while there are many honorable people on the ship, and they are all trustworthy, the squad is composed of a convict, an assassin, an angry krogan, a mercenary, and dozens of Cerberus operatives."

Garrus piped up, "Don't forget a vigilante and a clone!"

Anaya heard this, "Wait, you're a clone?... I should arrest you, but the Justicar would have to kill me and I intend to live. Besides, you don't seem like a mad scientist type."

Shepard grinned, "And for that, I have someone for you. Tali, bring him in!"

Tali walked in behind an angry Pitne For and Shepard handed Anaya the shipping manifest and another datapad he had picked up that proved that the asari he killed, Elnora, had killed the volus merchant.

Anaya looked at the Eclipse datapad first, "Interesting, but I can't verify it. It would be inadmissible." Samara spoke up, "I vouch for Shepard and any evidence he brings forward."

Anaya looked at her, and back to Shepard. "I accept the judgement of the justicar. Thanks, Shepard. I wasn't sure about trusting a stranger - and a human, at that. But you came through. I just wish we could have imprisoned Elnora instead of killing her."

Shepard frowned, "Me too. Also, there's the Pitne For one. I suggest you arrest this smuggler. He smuggled in red sand and illegal weapons tech."

Anaya looked at Pitne, "So that's why he's here. I'll arrest him and his cohorts. This is a big help, Shepard. I can't do much to thank you, but we do have a small discretionary bounty fund. Take this."

Shepard smiled as Anaya handed him a credit chit. "Thank you, Detective. Let's go, Samara."

* * *

The debriefing for Samara was much more pleasant. She chose to stay in the Starboard Observation Room, across from Kasumi.

Shepard washed up a bit and went down to the third floor, Miranda needed to talk to him.

* * *

Next chapter is gonna be fun for me to write.


	15. Sparring

So a lot of fun, original stuff in this chapter. REVIEW! And I need a beta reader. Someone to read my drafts so that they can review early on and help me decide on what to change. If you're interested, PM me.

* * *

In the last hour, Miranda had revealed more to Shepard than she had since they met.

They were trying to relocate her barely adult sister, Oriana. Cynthia and Tali were accompanying them, Garrus was doing calibrations and preparing for the duel they were going to have when Shepard got back.

So far, the team had easily decimated all of the Eclipse mercs in their way. They were riding the elevator up to reach Eclipse's Captain Enyala. As Miranda put it, "That bitch is going to pay."

The elevator reached the proper level and they all stepped out. The man, presumably Niket, narrowed his eyes and just said, "Miri." All of the team pulled out their weapons.

Enyala jumped off the box she was sitting on and commented, "This should be fun." She also pulled out her shotgun. Shepard smiled, "We outnumber you. On this planet alone, we've killed over 150 Eclipse troopers, what makes you different?"

An asari assistant or something tried to run away from Aniela, but that damn Eclipse asari used her shotgun to send the assistant flying. Aniela waited a moment; Eclipse mercs started appearing all around the area. With a smile, the asari stated, "That. We outnumber you."

Miranda just looked at the man. "Niket. You sold me out."

Shepard pulled out his second pistol and aimed it at Enyala, "How do you want to handle this, Miranda?"

She just continued, "Why Niket? You were my friend. You helped me get away from my father."

Niket had his hands up, he wasn't a combatant. Shepard started devising ways to kill the Eclipse members. Niket was talking, "Yes! Because you wanted to leave. That was your choice, but if I'd known that you'd stolen a baby-"

Miranda interrupted and yelled, "I didn't steal her! I rescued her!"

Niket crossed his arms and argued, "From a life of wealth and happiness? You weren't saving her! You were getting back at your father!"

This was bad, he couldn't think of many good ways to get out of this with no bad injuries. If he stalled, more Eclipse mercs would come in. "If you're working for Miranda's father that means he knows about Oriana. We need to find a new solution."

Niket bowed his head, "Miranda's father has no information about Oriana. I knew you had spy programs in your father's system, Miri, so I kept it private. I'm the only one who knows."

Miranda's blue eyes instantly filled with distraught. "Which means that you're the only loose end. This isn't how I wanted it to end, Niket. I'm going to miss you..."

Shepard grabbed her arm and pulled it back, "Miranda, wait! You don't want to do this."

"This has to end here, Shepard. My father will keep trying to find Oriana."

"Maybe Niket can help... talk to your father. Just say you got here first."

Niket slowly agreed, "I'll... I'll tell him that you hid her. That I don't know where she is."

Miranda got pissed, "I **never **want to see you again Nik-"

Enyala shot Niket in the back. "Done. Now if you don't mind, I have a shipment to del-" Shepard ran forward, initialized them, and stabbed her through the chest with both of his omni-blades. "You shouldn't have done that."

A dozen rockets started flying at them. Shepard flung Enyala off his omni-blades with his cyborg-strength and into two of the rockets. There was barely enough left to fit in a box.

Cynthia and Miranda used their biotics to reverse every single rocket, and slam it back into each one of the Eclipse mercs who fired it. None were left. And to think, Shepard had been worried about how to deal with all the mercs.

Tali and Shepard just looked around and at the same time, they both just said, "Wow."

Miranda looked around, there was blood and body parts splattered all over the place. "Shepard, there could be more Eclipse mercs near the shuttle. I want to make sure Oriana and her family get on safely."

Shepard nodded, and picked up an odd trinket he found. He opened the elevator and they all walked in.

Miranda just walked in with sorrow on her face as the elevator began to rise. "I can't believe Niket sold me out. I didn't even see it coming."

Shepard put his hand on her shoulder, "Miranda... Even with all your upgrades, you're human just like the rest of us. Go easy on yourself."

Tali whispered to Cynthia, "It's funny how he never lets himself rest, but he always tells others too."

Cynthia whispered back, "He has the best kinds of double standards. And the worst kinds. Now isn't the time to talk about it with him."

Tali nodded, while Shepard and Miranda were finishing.

"Miranda, you still cared for him, even if he betrayed you."

Miranda just stared at the wall, "You're right. And my father knew it. He used that against me. It's always been like this. My father gave me anything I ever wanted, but there was always a hook, an angle for his long-term plan. I threw away everything he ever gave me when I ran. Except Niket. Weakness on my part."

Shepard took a moment to think, before replying, "You can't toss aside everything you care about just to be safe. It's not healthy."

Miranda looked at him, "It's okay, Shepard. My father hurt me, but he didn't break me. As much as he tried to turn me into exactly what he wanted... I'm my own person."

Shepard smiled, "Obviously. And besides, you still have Oriana."

Miranda kept her sad expression up, "My father didn't gave her to me. I rescued her. But... yes. You're right. I still have something. Thank you."

The elevator took another minute to reach the top, which was spent in silence.

When they reached the top and the door opened, Miranda scanned the area, "No sign of Eclipse. It looks like we're clear. There she is. She's safe... with her family." Miranda looked downtrodden. She lifted her head up and said, "Alright. We should go."

Shepard looked at Miranda with surprise, "Don't you even want to say hello?"

"It's not about what I want. It's about what's right for her. The less she knows about me, the better. She's got a family. A life. I'll just complicate that for her."

Shepard looked down. "You're a good sister. You love her. She doesn't need any details, but would it really be so bad for her to know she has a great sister who loves her?"

Miranda conceded, "I guess not..."

Shepard smiled, "Go on... we'll wait here. Good luck."

Miranda took a moment, before walking over. Shepard could their reunion, and he could hear it because of his enhanced hearing. So he backed up a bit to give them a bit more privacy. After a few minutes she came back.

Oriana was watching, so Tali, Cynthia, and Shepard all smiled and waved once. She seemed nice. She waved back. They left. Shepard finished up with some business, Kirosa family data, the trinket, some info he found at the crime scene Samara was at, he dealt with it all. And he got some sparring gear.

* * *

When they got back to the Normandy, Miranda thanked him for what he had done and returned to her office. He got Miranda's trust, and she wasn't an easy person to get personal with. It was nice. He went back to his quarters to get some rest and wash up.

He had some things to do now, Zaeed had a thing to do, so did Kasumi. So they were going to go to Bekenstein, then Zorya. He had a long time before he got there. He invited Tali up for a little while, she was just off her shift and he wanted to spend a little time with her.

After about an hour of talking, they fell asleep next to each other. When he woke up, she was still asleep. He pulled a blanket over her and left a note on a datapad. _"Tali- Left to spar with Garrus, be back in half an hour."_

He told Garrus to meet him on the fifth floor in five minutes over the intercom and headed down himself. Garrus got in the elevator with Shepard on the third floor, "You could just have come to the Main Battery. You didn't need to use the damn intercom."

Shepard grinned, "You would have decided to punch me early, and beat me to death with the sparring gear." Garrus nodded, "I would have."

When they reached the fifth floor, Shepard locked the door so that no one could get in. "I don't want anyone interrupting. If they need us, they can use the intercom."

Garrus just nodded. "You said you got sparring gear?"

Shepard nodded; he tossed Garrus a helmet and some turian very light armor. It was meant to make a punch less painful, not take a bullet.

Garrus took off his blue armor for once, and put the light armor on. "I don't like this. Maybe if you got it in blue..."

Shepard smiled, he and Garrus hadn't joked around for a long time. Things were already getting better. He was hoping that this would release most of the tension between them.

He also threw Garrus some light gloves, "I don't want to get my hands bruised when I punch you too much, Garrus."

Garrus smiled for the first time in a while around Shepard. He had high hopes for this, he needed to vent and this was a place to do it. When they both had their armor on, they got in the middle of the floor. Their helmets covered all of theirs heads, it was essentially a light version of their actual helmets, with more cushioning.

The armor covered every inch of their bodies, and the gloves had cushioning to reduce pain from punching a turian. That turian metallic carapace wouldn't be fun to hit otherwise.

Shepard put his fists up, "Let's do this." They circled each other for a moment, before Shepard moved in, ducked under one of Garrus' punches and sent a right hook, then a left one, into the turian's helmet.

Garrus retaliated with a series of punches alternating between Shepard's gut and his face, which Shepard ended with a dodge and a kick to the stomach.

They had both trained with their respective militaries for years in both weapon and hand to hand combat.

Garrus ran at Shepard, which Shepard dodged and combated by throwing Garrus to the ground and stepping on his chest with one foot. The turian almost instantly grabbed Shepard's foot and threw him to the ground as well. Garrus jumped onto Shepard and punched him in the face a few times.

Garrus was met with a push backwards, a kick backwards, and an uppercut, sending Garrus flying upwards before he hit the cold, metal floor. The armor suitably protected him though.

Shepard grabbed Garrus, punched him a few times, and smashed him down again and again. Garrus couldn't be hurt like this. Without intentional negligence, neither one of them could be hurt.

Garrus rolled over; avoiding Shepard's punch aimed at his head, swept Shepard's legs and slammed Shepard's head into the metal ground. Garrus followed this by flipping Shepard over and punching him in the face half a dozen times again.

Shepard socked him in the head, and alternated between the head and the gut, before ultimately flipping Garrus over and dragging him up with Shepard. Shepard slammed Garrus into the ground again, punched him once, and stopped. Even for sparring, this was intense. Time to call it off.

Shepard walked away, towards the elevator to take his armor off. He got his helmet off and said, "This is getting a little heated, and we'll do this again later."

Garrus got pissed, and growled, "Shepard, I'm fine with heated."

"I'm not. We'll continue later."

"...Fuck you. You don't mind heat when it's killing your friends, but when you get a few blows to the head you give up?"

And the tension was back. Shepard paused, his helmet was off, but he hadn't started on his armor or gloves yet. "I don't want either of us walking away with anything more than minor bruises."

Garrus scoffed, "Ha! You don't care. You've personally isolated yourself from civilization to the point where nothing concerns you. Not bruises, not deaths. You risk lives you don't have to. You go into people's lives, tell them what to do, and get out. You're a cold-hearted bastard who only cares about himself."

Shepard felt a pang of regret and shame wash over him. As well as anger. He hadn't been angry like that since Nassana's towers. And before that, he had only felt that at Saren for forcing the death of Kaiden.

It was a significant amount of intense hatred boiling up. "Look, Garrus, I don't want to risk injuries. We'll do this later. I don't want to fight you right now. I don't want to do this right now."

Garrus' voice rose, "Too bad, Shepard. Because I do. The reason you allow yourself to detach from reality is because you killed people who deserved it, and there were a few accidents. You let that get to you, and you stopped really caring. You could've saved Kaiden, we both know that. But you didn't. Because it was a risk. You don't deserve any of this. You're nothing more than a selfish, egotistical, cold-hearted bastard. Actually, you are more. You're a fucked up non-human freak.

Shepard glared at Garrus. "Say that. One more time." He felt waves of anger and rage wash over him. He was going to do something he regretted, he could feel it, but he couldn't stop it. Garrus said it again, "You're a fucked up non-human freak!"

Shepard smiled. "EDI, put on a nice beat for me to kick Garrus' ass too."

EDI paused a moment before she started playing some club music from Afterlife into the hanger, "Of course, Shepard.

Shepard menacingly said to Garrus, "I'm sorry, say that one more time?" Garrus grinned a sick smile and repeated, "You're. A Fucked. Up. Non. Human. Freak." Shepard didn't even put his helmet back on as he launched himself at Garrus, "You're going to regret that, Garrus!"

Shepard delivered a punch to Garrus' helmet, his gut, and repeated that pattern three times before jumping up and kicking Garrus backwards. Garrus roared and charged Shepard.

Shepard dodged all of his punches before slamming him in the face three more times, dazing him enough for Shepard to rip off the turian's helmet and throw it away.

Shepard followed this with an alternation of left and right hooks against Garrus' face. He grabbed the turian by the throat with both hands, "Fuck you, you ungrateful piece of vigilante shit." He started choking Garrus and forced the turian on his knees while doing so.

Garrus stopped clawing at his throat, and instead ripped off his right glove and used his claws to rip across Shepard's face.

Shepard stumbled backwards and felt his face, "Fuck! My face! You'll pay for that Garrus!"

Garrus took his other glove off, "I doubt that, Shepard!"

Shepard ran at the turian, dodging punches, but Garrus kicked the charging human in the face.

Shepard fell on his ass, and Garrus didn't miss the opportunity. He jumped on Shepard and punched him in the face a few times before Shepard grabbed both turian fists, and managed to shove Garrus off of him.

He flipped backwards and crouched down, "Bring it, you scaly motherfucker."

They both circled each other again, each eyeing their prey, analyzing each moment like it might be their last. Shepard saw a brief gap in Garrus' defense and ran at him, spinning as he kicked Garrus in the head. As he was about to follow with a kick to the gut, Garrus grabbed his foot and slammed him on the ground.

Garrus walked over, and picked Shepard up by the head, "Shepard, when I'm done with you, no amount of time and resources will be able to bring you back to life!" He pulled Shepard over to the wall, and slammed his head into the metal three times.

He was about to do it a fourth, when Shepard elbowed Garrus in the face and charged him, slamming Garrus against the alternative wall. Garrus fought back by clawing at Shepard's chest armor, but even after piercing it with his claws and stabbing Shepard, the Commander wouldn't stop.

Shepard held Garrus against the wall with his left arm, while punching him in the face with his right over and over again. Garrus finally spit some blood onto Shepard's face and kicked him in the chest, forcing him back. Shepard felt his head, he was bleeding badly. But he had kicked Reaper Saren's ass, he could beat this fucker into the ground.

Shepard waited for Garrus to charge before jumping up, grabbing onto a low hanging bar with both hands, and using his momentum and height to kick Garrus in the head with both feet. The blow sent the turian sprawling backwards.

Shepard grabbed him by the back of his neck and lifted him up, choking him in the process.

"I'll try to make this quick. I'm sure you have some fucking calibrations to get back to." He slammed Garrus' head into the floor a few times before dropping him and kicking Garrus in the side.

That didn't stop Garrus from sweeping Shepard's legs, bringing him down to the ground. Garrus pulled himself up, and grabbed one of the few boxes kept in the hanger.

He lifted it over Shepard and was about to drop it, but Shepard used his hands to push off and slide across the floor and under Garrus.

With a sickening crunch, he broke both of the spurs on the backs of Garrus' legs in one swift movement.

Garrus fell down to the floor, dropping the box and screaming. "FUUUUUUUCK! SHEPARD! EVEN IF I HAVE TO FINISH THE REST OF THIS FIGHT BY DOING NOTHING BUT CRAWLING, I WILL BREAK YOUR DAMN NECK!"

Shepard picked up the box Garrus had dropped and lifted it above the turian, "You're going to have one hell of a headache, Garrus!"

Garrus reached out, ripped open Shepard's armor, and used his sharp claws to stab Shepard with both hands.

Shepard dropped the box and collapsed. He was bleeding badly, but he had done the most damage. The turian's spurs were broken. That hurt more than a stab wound, by far.

Garrus jumped over the box, suppressing the roaring pain in his legs, and used his claws to badly scratch and rip skin all across Shepard's chest and face. He ended it by grabbing Shepard's left arm, and using a few jerking movements to create the oh - so satisfying crack Garrus was looking for.

Shepard didn't scream, but he gritted his teeth and made a pained groaning sound. The turian balled his hands into fists, and punched Shepard in the gut.

Shepard grabbed the turian's arm and yanked it towards him, while positioning his legs so that Garrus tripped over his leg. Garrus fell over Shepard and off the box. Shepard stood up, and kicked the box into Garrus.

He stepped over to the turian and put his boot on Garrus' face, "Lick it, or I'll break your legs next!"

Garrus refused with garbled words and Shepard raised his boot to stomp and break the turian's nose, and probably a few other things. Garrus took the brief second he had, to extend his long arms and slam his fist right into Shepard's lightly armored groin.

Shepard fell backwards, continuing his groaning and gritting. Garrus was about to kick Shepard in his pathetic human junk again, when Shepard's legs gripped Garrus' moving leg, and flipped the turian onto his ass.

Garrus was up at the same time as Shepard, and they both ran at each other. They both succeeded at dodging each other's punches and kicks, and they simultaneously sent a right hook into the other's face.

Both turian and human collapsed to the side. Shepard stood up first, "I have a broken arm and a bleeding head, not to mention an unbearable pain in my groin. Time to get even.

He used his working arm to grab Garrus by the shoulder and lift him up to his knees, before kicking the turian in the junk and sending him back down again with a groan. "YOU CAN FALL WHEN I SAY YOU CAN, YOU FUCKING PLATED BASTARD!"

Shepard kicked him again and again, before walking over to one of the crates. His skeletal enhancements allowed him to lift one of the lighter, but still heavy, crates with just his right hand.

He hurled it at Garrus just as the turian stood, slamming Garrus in the head and sending him tumbling against the other wall.

He yelled at Garrus from across the room, "Maybe you were right. Maybe I don't care anymore. Because I don't care enough to not kill you. You're going to die here, Vakarian!"

Garrus' bleeding mouth contorted into a grin. Turian's were surprisingly fast out of bulky armor. He stumbled up, and worked through the pain in his legs to sprint at Shepard.

The Commander wasn't expecting the sudden burst of speed, so Garrus was able to tackle him and start ripping at the skin exposed under his shredded shirt.

He elbowed Shepard in the face, slamming his fragile human head against the metal again. Shepard smiled though, he knew where to hit.

He ripped off Garrus' cast, the one covering the painful burns and scars where he had been hit by the rocket. And he slammed his fist into that exact location. Garrus fell off of Shepard screaming.

Shepard ripped off Garrus' light armor, and punched him in the gut over and over again until he heard a crack. Garrus grabbed Shepard's head and slammed Shepard into the floor next to him.

He punched and scratched Shepard's stomach until he heard a similar crack and than rolled away to avoid a fist headed in his direction. He didn't get far enough away to avoid the kick at his junk.

Turian's had basic plating, so it didn't hurt as badly as it did to Shepard, but he still stopped, put his hands over his groin, and roared. Shepard got up again and stumbled to the other side of the room, where he vomited, and turned around.

Garrus also got up. They both ran at each other, dealt each other a few blows, and landed each other on their asses.

But this time, Shepard couldn't move. He wanted - no. He needed to beat the shit out of Garrus, but his arm felt like it was being ripped off every time he got up. And the broken spurs on Garrus' legs had essentially made it so it was agony to walk. He couldn't get up.

On the other side of the elevator door that led into the hanger, Tali, Kasumi, and Cynthia had finally hacked their way through. EDI had told them what was happening, and they had rushed down. Dr. Chakwas was already preparing the Med-Bay for their arrival.

When Tali knelt next to John, and Cynthia knelt next to Garrus, both men had horrific injuries. They were both covered in blood, blue and red respectively, and they both had body parts bent in jarring positions.

The white on Shepard's shirt wasn't even visible behind all the red blood, and Garrus' lower face was coated in blue blood. Grunt and Zaeed were both brought in, and the two men carried the injured combatants off to the Med-Bay, closely followed by the trio of women.

* * *

Miranda walked into the QED. It was ridiculous that she had to do this, but Shepard was bleeding out in the Med-Bay. The Illusive Man appeared before her. He was mildly surprised, "Miranda? Where's Shepard?"

Miranda coughed slightly as she explained, "He's currently unavailable. He should be ready for the mission, though."

The Illusive Man's face immediately sparked with anger, "I didn't bring Shepard back from the dead so he could skip out on meetings. Get him here now."

Miranda sighed, "I'm sorry, but he was in an... altercation with Officer Vakarian. Dr. Chakwas and Mordin will get them ready in time. Or, if not, me and Cynthia can lead the mission."

The Illusive Man sighed, "I want this dealt with. Throw Vakarian out an airlock if you have to. We caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. They stumbled on to a Collector ship beyond the Korlus system."

* * *

That was fun. Almost a whole chapter of my own writing. I think for all that original writing I deserve a REVIEW!


	16. In the Belly of the Beast

Alright, REVIEW! And I finally got my beta reader!. Thank you Dracconnis! Check out his stories, they're great.

* * *

Shepard's eyes snapped open and he tried to push himself up, off his bed. His arm faltered, and he fell off. The pain was searing, bolting through every part of his body. Jesus, it hurt like hell. He could hear himself groan in pain. Why? Falling off a bed shouldn't hurt this badly.

He started to notice his surroundings, it definitely wasn't his room. He felt someone grab him by a shoulder. Someone big. Something was wrong. He felt himself being lifted off the floor. He tried to fight back, but he was delirious and weak.

He was easily overpowered and put back on the bed. He felt his blood rushing back to his body parts, his eyes focusing, and his mind sharpening. Clarity returned to him.

It was Grunt who was helping him, and the equipment told him that he was in the Med-Bay. Dr. Chakwas and Grunt stood over him as he lay in the bed. Chakwas examined him for a moment, "Shepard? Shepard are you alright?"

He could see Tali and Cynthia appear to the sides of the doctor. Tali put her hand on his head, "John, you're in the Med-Bay, you're hurt, just stay down."

Shepard calmed himself and remained limp, it all came back to him. He looked down, he didn't have a shirt on, instead he had bandages wrapped around his entire chest. He and Garrus had beaten the shit out of each other. His left arm wasn't broken anymore, modern medicine had a doctor inject tiny nanites through a needle into a blood stream, where they could spread through the body, repairing bones and replacing small doses of lost blood. The repaired bones were only barely mended now, but in a few days he would be completely healed

"Garrus. Is Garrus okay?" Shepard barely croaked out.

Cynthia looked behind her, at the unconscious turian. "He's fine, John. Chakwas has bandaged him up, and he's resting comfortably."

Miranda walked in, "Dr. Chakwas. When can Shepard be ready for combat?"

"Both he and Garrus had broken bones, cracked ribs, a heavy loss of blood, err... testicular damage, several bruises, and they had significant concussions, so I think that-"

Shepard took a deep breath and got out of bed, "I'm ready to go. I can be suited up in ten. What's wrong? I thought we were going to Bekenstein, and we were several hours away."

Cynthia and Tali both went to his sides.

"Keelah, John we can do one mission without you."

"John, rest for a little while, we don't need you for this."

Miranda walked over and examined Shepard for a moment, "Shepard, you just did me a huge favor; I can do you one and take this mission over."

Shepard shook his head, "I've been better, but I can still fight."

Miranda looked at Dr. Chakwas for a confirmation.

Chakwas sighed, "Yes, he can fight, but I really wouldn't recommend it. "

Shepard walked over to Garrus, "I'm fine. But Garrus. When will he make his recovery?"

Garrus' eyes shot open and he grabbed Shepard by the neck, bringing his head down about a foot. "Right now, Shepard."

All eyes were on Garrus as he released Shepard and pushed him back. Despite his still-healing spurs, Garrus managed to stand up.

Garrus rolled his avian neck around, "I'll be ready whenever you need me. Otherwise, just leave me in the Main Battery."

He left the Med-Bay, and Cynthia took a moment before trailing behind him. Miranda glared at Shepard, "Can I talk to you in my office?" Shepard nodded, and they exited the Med-Bay to walk over to Miranda's office.

As soon as the door closed behind Shepard, Miranda sat down and yelled, "What the hell was that!"

Shepard began to open his mouth before Miranda interrupted, "I'm sorry Shepard, but this was completely unacceptable! What the hell went wrong!"

"I...I lost my temper." Miranda rolled her eyes, "That's an understatement. You were both lucky to get away without permanent bone or brain damage! The hanger has dents that we're going to need professionally fixed!"

Shepard couldn't bring himself to meet Miranda's eye-line. Miranda had somehow reduced him from a dashing Commander to a shamed child. "I know. Things just got out of hand."

Miranda looked off to the side. "Shepard... is keeping Officer Vakarian around such a good idea?"

Under any other situation, Shepard would have jumped to Garrus' defense, but recent events had somehow changed that. "I... I don't know anymore."

Miranda took a deep sigh, "Shepard, it's your decision, but maybe we need to leave Garrus on the Citadel next time we stop there. He's quickly becoming much more of a liability than an ally. Think about it."

Shepard was going to fight back, but he chose to conserve his energy. He just silently nodded and looked up, "Anything else?"

A phantom of a smile crossed Miranda's face, and she began to relay the information The Illusive Man had given her. They were an hour out.

* * *

Garrus was busy calibrating the weapons systems while telling the story to Cynthia. She was impartial to the fight, she blamed them both. It was one thing to have some passive aggression, but they beat the shit out of each other! They would kill each other long before the team was ready for the suicide mission.

This whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. Garrus had taunted John, he was acting stupid. John had lost his control over a few comments, he was acting irrational.

Tali was having a similar explanation given to her by John. Tali and Cynthia were becoming very close friends. A shared hatred of Cerberus was helping. The Cerberus-haters essentially had their own little club. Jack, Tali, and Cynthia were a fairly close group of friends. Along with Kasumi, but the thief had no particular hate for Cerberus.

The general opinion was that John was in the right. It was hard to place blame on a hero like him. But John could be violent and terrifying when he became enraged. Good thing that didn't happen often.

Miranda had filled Cynthia in, since she was third in command after Miranda. Unofficially, of course, but Miranda had come to respect Cynthia. And while Miranda definitely was, as Jack put it, a Cerberus cheerleader, she was respectable.

Every crewmember but John had been filled in, and after Miranda's severe lecture she would inform him too.

While Garrus was down, Cynthia had found a lead. Maybe it was nothing, but there were a few trails she had found for Garrus to follow. She had forwarded them to his extranet account. As their conversation went on, Cynthia couldn't help noting the differences between this Garrus, and the Garrus Vakarian from two years ago again.

Everyone had changed, but John and Garrus were the points of interest. They had become violent renegades, just on varying levels. If they couldn't be pulled back from the brink of oblivion they were teetering on, those changes would become permanent. A minute or two passed before there was an interruption, John opened the door and walked inside. "Garrus. Cynthia, could we have a little privacy?"

Cynthia nodded, "Just try not to beat each other up again. We have a mission to go on." She left to go suit up and get ready.

* * *

Apparently Garrus and John's talk hadn't gone well. Shepard had an extra bruise around his eye as he was preparing. It was hard to tell, he had so many, but she was still fairly certain John had been punched.

John went up to the cockpit to talk with Joker. He was taking the whole team for this operation, you could never be too careful with the Collectors. The whole team was equipped and prepared. Seeing these people, it was easy to have faith that the Collectors would be destroyed. First here, then on their homeworld.

The team was divided in two. John was leading Tali, Cynthia, and Garrus' replacement, Thane. Miranda was taking everyone else. The two teams were going to stick together; Miranda just recommended that the group be divided in case the squad had to split up.

The group took the shuttle down. Once the shuttle arrived, amidst comments about the design and the containers, the team began to move. On the way towards their goal, the team came across a rotting mound of bodies. The sight was absolutely disgusting. A few log updates were made and the team progressed on.

The team secured the area while Shepard checked a console with a Collector corpse and chatted with EDI. No one in particular was listening intently, but that changed when EDI said, "A quad-strand genetic structure identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure: the Protheans."

Every team member snapped their heads to look at the corpse of the Collector. Shepard commented on the obvious, "My god. The Protheans didn't vanish. They're just working for the Reapers now."

EDI explained the situation as gasps and murmurs arose.

Cynthia stared at the Collector corpse, "The Reapers twisted the Collector's DNA and turned them into slaves!"

"Anyone else hungry?" Everyone stared at Grunt for a minute before returning to the matter at hand.

John just simplified the conversation, "They're not going to do to us what we did to the Protheans. Let's find what we need before the Collectors come to salvage this vessel. Move out."

In a small heap of weapons that had most likely been taken from the colonists, Shepard found a Widow Sniper Rifle, a Revenant Assault Rifle, and a Claymore shotgun. The following view showed an incredible amount of pods (presumably filled with colonists) lining the walls and ceiling, along with a few on the floor.

"Look - on the ceiling. More of those strange pods." Everyone's favorite turian commented.

Miranda asked, "There must be hundreds of them. How many do you think are full?"

Once again, John preferred simplicity. "Too many."

"I detect no signs of life in the pods, Shepard. It is probable the victims inside died when the ship lost primary power." EDI spoke in her standard monotone voice.

Everyone proceeded down a few hallways forward in silence before Joker came in contact, "Commander. You gotta hear this. On a hunch, I asked EDI to run an analysis on this ship. I compared the EM profile against data recorded by the original Normandy two years ago. They are an exact match."

Shepard stopped moving. When he had enlisted in the Alliance...damn, was it really thirteen years ago? When he had enlisted he wanted to kill. After Torfan he wanted to help. Now the best he could hope for was to survive. There was a race of sentient starships coming to destroy the galaxy, and a race of ancient insectoid monsters were after him. There was no other explanation for why they would be following him for two years. It wasn't a coincidence.

Joker added, "Something doesn't add up, Commander. Watch your back."

Shepard stared at the ground for a moment for nodding, "Yeah. Move out." Something didn't add up. They had only found the one dead Collector; there were no other corpses or husks. Something was wrong.

With these thoughts circling around his head, Shepard walked from the hallway into a giant cavernous hub of some sort. Pods covered every inch of the walls. Everyone looked around with a horrified expression. The humans more so than the aliens. Though he was pretty sure from Tali's body language and her almost inaudible, "Keelah..." that she was sympathetic to the situation.

Miranda muttered, "They could take every human in the Terminus Systems and not have enough to fill these pods."

Tali had a particularly disturbing theory, "They're going to target Earth."

Shepard started to walk towards the goal. EDI had managed to find a major console that she could hack into and take information from. The whole inside of the ship seemed organic. Honestly, Shepard would rather fight geth.

Thane pointed out a green glowing console, "Shepard, it seems we have reached our destination."

Samara looked around, "I would recommend caution, it is peculiar that the Collector crew is no where to be found."

Shepard looked around, "I noticed. Everyone be alert. This is wrong. It might be a trap."

He walked over to the glowing green console. It was different from standard models; it would be impossible for someone like him to discern the meanings of anything here. Luckily, EDI wasn't anything like him. He connected the console and the Normandy with his omni tool, "EDI? I'm setting up a bridge between you and the Collector ship. See if you can get anything useful from the data banks."

The AI told him, "Data mine in progress, Shepard."

The next thing he heard was what sounded like a Collector's yell, followed by Joker, "Uh... that can't be good."

Shepard sighed, he could never just go on a basic grab something and go mission without fighting through a thousand enemies. The machinery around him began to whir, and the console flashed a few times.

"Everyone's all right, Joker. What just happened?" Shepard reported.

Joker responded somewhat hastily, "Major power surge. Everything went dark but we're back up now." EDI chimed in with her info, "I managed to divert the majority of the overload to non-critical systems. Shepard, it was not a malfunction. This was a trap."

Suddenly, the platform the control panel was on rose into the air. It wasn't being pushed up, it was just flying. The first lift free of the ground was jolting, though.

While trying to pull himself off his ass, Shepard remarked, "We need a little help here EDI..."

"I am having trouble maintaining connection. There is someone else in the system."

Just as Shepard finally managed to stand up, another jolt threw him back down. At least the platform came to a stop. Everyone slowly stood up, helping each other up in the process. Another platform appeared in the distance and began to head towards the team.

EDI's mechanical voice went on as everyone prepared for battle. "Connection reestablished. I need to finish the download before I can override any systems."

Shepard pulled both of his pistols out and initiated his omni-blades. "Then you'd better get it done fast, EDI."

Thane and Garrus jumped out of cover. Both of them used their sniper rifles to send each one of the Collectors riding the flying platform off. Just as they succeeded, a dozen more platforms came out of nowhere. Without a word being spoken, Miranda, Jacob, Samara, and Jack began to use their biotics to fling the Collectors off the platforms in groups.

All the close and medium range combatants got their chance when the enemy platform numbers severely escalated. There were over a hundred of them. Shepard took a deep breath; this was going to be difficult. He ordered all the squad members to the sides of the platform where the Collector platforms were going to be.

The biotic and sniper teams continued to decimate oncoming platforms, but it wasn't enough. The close-combat team was highly prepared and dangerous, but against hundreds of Collectors, this was going to get bad fast. _  
_

Everyone prepared their weapons and as soon as the first wave of platforms came down, all hell broke loose.

Grunt hopped onto the higher platform and charged the Collectors, shooting the ones he couldn't smash and crush (they may have been Protheans, but the still squashed like insects).

Zaeed went apeshit and used his assault rifle to send a dozen bullets whizzing through each Collector's brain, all the while hurling inferno grenades all around.

Kasumi kept darting around the battlefield smashing Collector skulls and stabbing them in the back.

Mordin was the most tactical, sending flares into the enemies as he shot them in the head. He wasn't a soldier, but he was a great strategist on the battlefield.

Tali used her combat drone, Chiktikka vas Paus, to stun the enemies as she blew them away.

Cynthia used her SMG and Pistol to whittle down the enemies barriers and shoot them in the head respectively.

Shepard just took a deep breath, and turned into the whirlwind of blood and death that had earned him the title "The Butcher of Torfan". Of course, now he had omni-blades instead of knives, but he was still a death machine. He alternated between stabbing through Collector barriers and shooting the unprotected Collectors. Even when Harbinger appeared in a Collector, all it took was a few stabs and a shot or two to send that Reaper bastard down.

Each team member managed to clear out a platform at a time. With a dozen crewmembers, it only took a few minutes for them to clear the hundred plus platforms. The Collectors were numerous, but the team was an organized assortment of the finest in the galaxy.

Once all the Collectors were dead, EDI's robotic voice told Shepard, "Shepard, you must manually reestablish my link to the command console."

Shepard and the rest of the squad gathered by the control panel again. With a few taps on his omni-tool, he reestablished the link. EDI's avatar and voice appeared, "I have regained control of the platform, Shepard." Shepard dismissed his omni-tool and congratulated, "I knew you wouldn't let us down, EDI."

In what sounded like a proud voice, EDI said, "I always work at optimal capacity."

The avatar vanished and Shepard hesitantly asked, "Did we get what we need?"

EDI answered, "I found data that could help us successfully navigate the Omega-4 Relay. I have also found the turian distress call that served as the lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual."

The platform went into motion, and quickly arrived at a new destination. Why would it be unusual that the turian distress call was fake? It was plausible. "Seems logical to me that they would have sent the initial message as bait."

EDI's avatar popped back up on the control panel, "No, it is unusual because turian emergency channels have secondary encryption. It is corrupted in the message. It is not possible that the Illusive Man would believe the distress call was genuine."

Shepard's eyes narrowed, "Why are you so sure?"

"I found the anomaly with Cerberus detection protocols. He wrote them."

Joker's voice was laced with surprise and anger, "He knew it was a trap? Why would he send us into a trap?"

Shepard's face hardened yet again, "That son of a bitch. We'll question him when we're out."

Garrus muttered, "And I thought I'd had my betrayal for the year." Several other comments could be heard, from Grunt's "Let's kill him." to Cynthia's "Bad time to start being an optimist, Shepard."

Joker interrupted the comments, "Uh... Commander. We've got another problem. The Collector ship is powering up. You need to get out before their weapons come online. I'm not losing another Normandy!"

EDI's synthetic voice provided a little direction, "I do not have full control of their systems. I will do what I can. Sending coordinates for shuttle extraction."

Shepard waited for the coordinates to appear on his heads-up-display before ordering, "We've only got a few minutes, move quickly!"

The resistance throughout the ship was easy to slice through, after the hundreds of Collectors, anything else was easy. Eventually the team came to find another Praetorian, but with a little more knowledge and a lot more power, the team dropped the behemoth in seconds.

A few more minutes yielded a welcome sight, the shuttle; ready to get them the hell out. Perfect, because the Collector ship's weapons were charged to about 95%.

Joker's voice reminded him of that, "We're out of time, Commander! We have to go!"

Shepard turned around and dispatched a few dozen husks, "You heard the man - everybody onto the Normandy! Move!"

The shuttle pilot was really gunning it, Shepard wasn't even strapped in before he got slammed against a wall. Joker's voice went on, "Strap in people - gonna make them work for it this time!"

Shepard and Cynthia ran up to the cockpit, armor still entirely on. The Collector's weapons were firing; any random minor hit, and they would all be going straight to hell.

Joker wildly spun and twisted the Normandy, "I can't dodge this guy forever, EDI! Get us the hell out of here!"

"Specify destination, Mr. Moreau."

"Anywhere that's not here!"

"Very well. Engaging mass effect core."

The Normandy just barely made the FTL jump to avoid the enemies' weapons.

Shepard just leaned against a wall and started breathing heavily. "Damn. I'm going to kill that son of a bitch. I have no intention of dying again."

He didn't even take the time to change before storming off to the conference room. He needed to have a talk with that robo-eyed terrorist. Even Miranda offered some light encouragement for chewing this bastard out.

Luckily, the Illusive Man called him first. As soon as Shepard was in, the Illusive Man greeted him, "Shepard. Looks like EDI extracted some interesting data before the Collector ship came back online."

Shepard calmed himself; it wouldn't do any good to have a screaming match with the Illusive Man. "EDI told us the distress call originated from the Collectors. You betrayed us. Just like I knew you would."

"We're at war. The Collectors are taking humans, and every minute we waste is one more we give the enemy-"

"Shut up! Yes, we're at war! But it never occurred to you that we are the only fighting force in this war, did it! If you had told us, we could have pulled this whole thing off and the Collectors might have never even known we were in their trap! Instead you almost killed the whole team, and destroyed the Normandy! Let me ask you something, how many minutes of precious time would that have given the enemy! I know the damn stakes, but we're supposed to be on the same side, and I can't trust you!"

The Illusive Man's calm was temporarily broken, but he regained his posture before saying, "I wouldn't have sent you in if I didn't think you could succeed."

Shepard pointed as he yelled, "I! Don't! Risk! People! There are always alternatives!"

After Shepard stopped, the Illusive Man tried to justify his actions. He was terrible at it. Between drags of his cigarettes, he explained; "You may not like being on the receiving end - neither would I - but the facts are with me. As much as we try to avoid them, these decisions need to be made. But more importantly... it paid off. EDI confirmed our suspicions. The Reapers and the Collector ships use an advanced Identify Friend/Foe system that the relays recognize. All we need to do is get our hands on one of those IFFs."

FUCK! He had just been on the ship, why couldn't this info have come sooner? Damn! Shepard slowly massaged his forehead. "Do you have any leads on where I could find one?"

"An Alliance science team recently determined that the "Great Rift" on the planet Klendagon is actually an impact crater from a mass accelerator weapon. A very old mass accelerator. I sent the team to find either the weapon or its target. They found both."

* * *

Shepard sighed; this job was a pain in the ass. He stepped out of the QED. "EDI - tell the crew to assemble. We've got a lot to talk about."

As he turned around, he could see Tali in the doorway. "Keelah, John. You really can yell."

Shepard checked his omni-tool's clock. He had been there for about fifteen minutes. It had felt like fifty years. These conversations took forever and accomplished nothing other than pissing Shepard off. "Jesus, Tali how long have you been there?"

Tali shrugged, "I came in around the beginning. It's fun to hear you yell."

Shepard coughed a little, it was kind of weird asking her about this, "So... how's the research about our... thing."

Shepard could almost see her blush a little, "I'm working on it... Last time I was being a bit careless, but for the suicide mission I want to get as much... help as I can."

Shepard grinned, "I'm looking forward to it." He pulled Tali in by the waist and leaned in slightly...

"I thought Joker was a goddamn liar!"

Zaeed opened the door and walked in on them, followed by the rest of the crew.

Shepard quickly let go of Tali and turned to the door, "What the... oh yeah... ahem..."

Shepard rubbed the back of his head, "Well... shit."

Tali just nervously rubbed her hands together in silence. If she was blushing before, she looked like redder than a damn sun now. There were a few minutes of awkward silence before Mordin spoke up, "Different species deal with stress different ways-"

Shepard almost immediately yelled, "NO! We're not doing that right now! Please god, no! Meeting dismissed!"

Everyone cleared out quickly. Tali and Shepard just lingered behind. Shepard looked down, "Well, the cats out of the bag."

Tali just stared at Shepard, "What's a cat? And why do you keep it in a bag?"

* * *

"So the Illusive Man didn't sell us out. Could've fooled me." Jacob said as he leaned on the table. Mordin was pacing around. Only Mordin, Jacob, and Miranda were there. The second meeting was better. Everyone seemed happy to ignore the awkward thing they had just seen.

Mordin kept up his pacing as he talked, "Lied to us. Used us. Needed access to the Collector data banks. Necessary risk."

Shepard shook his head, "Maybe it was necessary, but if he does that again the Collectors will be the least of his problems. EDI, are you sure this IFF is going to work?"

EDI's voice confirmed it, "My analysis is accurate, Shepard. I have also determined the approximate location of the Collector homeworld based on navigational data from their vessel."

A map of the galaxy popped up, and a little cursor appeared. It circled around for a second or two before settling right in the middle of the map. Right in the middle of the galaxy. Everyone walked closer to see.

"That can't be right." Miranda commented.

Shepard stared at it for a moment before deciding. "EDI doesn't make mistakes. The Collector homeworld is located somewhere in the galactic core."

"Can't be. The core is just black holes and exploding suns. There are no habitable planets there." Jacob refuted.

Mordin quickly hypothesized, "Could be an artificial construction. Space station protected by powerful mass effect fields and radiation shields."

Miranda shook her head, "Even the Collectors don't have that kind of technology."

Shepard looked at the base as memories of the monster that almost summoned the apocalypse rushed through his head. "The Collectors are just servants of our real enemy. And we've all seen what their masters are capable of. They built the mass relays and the Citadel. Who's to say they can't build a space station surrounded by black holes? No wonder nobody's ever returned from a trip through the Omega-4 mass relay."

EDI explained, "The logical conclusion is that a small safe zone exists on the far side of the relay. A region where ships can survive. Standard relay transit protocols would not allow safe transport. Drift of several thousand kilometers is common, and would be fatal in the galactic core. The Reaper IFF must trigger the relay to use more advanced protocols."

Shepard looked at the map again. Something somehow felt unresolved. He had a few matters to deal with before they got the IFF and went through the relay. And he suspected the others did too. "Just because we can follow the Collectors through the relay doesn't mean we can take them out. I don't want to go after them until I know we're ready."

Jacob argued, "Sooner or later we need that IFF. I say, why wait?"

"It's a derelict Reaper. What if the Collectors are waiting for us? We may want to try and fortify the team before taking that kind of risk."

Shepard nodded, "If we get any more dossiers from the Illusive Man, great. If not, we have a few things left to do before we go."

Jacob submitted, "It's your call, Commander. Whatever you decide, we're with you."

Everyone left. Shepard went out of the conference room, researched a few upgrades he had acquired, and went to the galaxy map. There were going to Bekenstein.

* * *

So that was fun. Again, I want to thank Dracconnis for being my beta-reader. Review or I KILL YOU!


	17. The Heist

Alright, so Kasumi's mission. In the reviews, tell me whether you think the loyalty missions should be a whole chapter or just part of a chapter, and if only a part, which ones do I reduce? Sound off mis amigos. Mis amigos tontos. Tu es tonto porque tu no revista! REVISTA! I took high school spanish, so now I know everything. Suck it native speakers!

* * *

As the car descended from the clouds, Shepard adjusted his collar. He had done numerous missions similar to this in the Alliance. No one really thought this of him any more, but he was fairly good at stealth ops.

Cynthia seemed to be much more excited about it, though. They were on Bekenstein, "the humans' Illium". Which meant, they would be in the presence of some of the most powerful and the most dangerous people in the galaxy.

Kasumi just stared onwards as the car drove itself. "You clean up well, Mr. Solomon Gunn and Mrs. Alison Gunn. Hock won't know what hit him. And he won't be able to take his eyes off you."

Cynthia looked disgusted at the last comment. Shepard and Cynthia just looked at each other, "That's... greeaat. Also, please tell me we're brother and sister," Cynthia groaned.

Kasumi shook her head, "Next time you can make your own cover, Cyn." Shepard noticed the peculiar nickname and turned around to Cynthia in the back seat, "Cyn?"

Cynthia responded by (as she later defended: lightly) punching Shepard in the face. "Yes, John. Now shut up about it."

On any other man, that might have broken something. But as a reinforced cyborg-zombie Alliance man, it just hurt. A lot. He rubbed his face. "Oh come on, that was uncalled for!"

Kasumi's mouth twisted into a smile, "You shouldn't have teased her. Garrus is the only one who gets to do that."

Cynthia looked annoyed as she pulled up the files on the mission. Cover info, info on Hock, e.t.c. She just ignored the conversation point Kasumi brought up.

Kasumi seemed happy to have hit some truth. But she knew enough to leave it alone. "I took the liberty of giving you both a reputation. Papers, witnesses, article in Badass Weekly and Femme Fatale Weekly. Just don't start talking business with him, and you'll be fine."

Shepard pulled up his version of the mission briefing. For some reason, it left out the most important details. Kasumi must have wanted to make it so that Miranda couldn't see this.

He rescanned the briefing before stating, "Now's probably a good time to fill me in on the details."

Kasumi amusedly replied, "You have been waiting patiently..." Kasumi pulled up a video as she talked, "Our friend Hock is throwing a party for his closest friends. A couple dozen of the worst liars, cheaters, and mass murderers you'll ever want to meet, all bringing gifts as a tribute to the man himself."

Kasumi moved the video forward a little bit and continued, "Our tribute is a lovely statue of your old friend Saren, rendered with loving detail and filled to the brim with our weapons and armor. You can keep your pistol, as long as it's concealed. They won't hassle you over a sidearm."

Shepard looked at the video, the statue had a secret compartment filled with weapons. "Once inside, we'll make our way to Hock's vault door, somewhere in the back of the ballroom. Then we case the security and start peeling away the layers. The statue should be there, waiting for you to crack it open and arm up. Then we just waltz into the vault and take back Keiji's graybox. And I'll finally get a chance to say goodbye."

Shepard silently stared at Kasumi. Heartbreak was an emotion he could sympathize with. If Tali was gone, he didn't know what he would do. He would just go back to the Alliance and do meaningless crap until he died. Pathetic, but true.

Cynthia spoke up, "You've worked really hard on this. Keiji must have meant a lot to you."

Kasumi's tone returned to normal. Which wasn't normal for her. Most of the time, she was amused or sarcastic. Not like this. "Keiji's graybox holds a lot of priceless, personal memories. It's all that remains of who he was. But the secret he discovered is dangerous. I wouldn't bring you here if I wasn't."

Shepard leaned back a bit and chose his words carefully. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Kasumi by being careless. He slowly said, "What's in the graybox that makes it worth all this trouble?"

Kasumi took a moment to respond, a moment to assess all the worth of the graybox. "The graybox holds Keiji's memories. Everything from all the codes and plans he stole to... all the time we spent together."

Shepard looked down, damn. That was a tough decision. Kasumi seemed to already have made up her mind, but it would be too hard for Shepard to decide. Living without the memories, or reliving them. And reliving her death. He kept in silence for the rest of the ride. It was a good time for reflection and solemnity.

* * *

As the car landed with a light thump. Kasumi immediately went into cloaking, she was going to sneak in while Cynthia and Shepard walked in as guests. Shepard walked over to the other side and opened both doors, allowing a cloaked Kasumi and a well dressed Cynthia to get out of the car. It would look a bit peculiar, but they had gone over the reason on the way over.

Because no one had the foresight to have Kasumi in the back, and switching seats mid ride would be dangerous. As her door opened, Kasumi muttered, "This is our stop."

Shepard and Cynthia stood next to each other, with Kasumi right behind them. Cynthia fiddled with her dress and gestured forward, "After you, Mr. Gunn."

Shepard locked arms with Cynthia and began to walk forward, "How about at the the same time, Ms. Gunn?"

As soon as they began to step forward, an Eclipse security guard stopped them, "Just one moment, sir. There seems to be an issue with the statue."

Well, crap. Doomed from the get-go. This wasn't going to be good.

"Is there a problem here?"

Everyone turned to look at the wealthy man before them. Donovan Hock.

The Eclipse Guard sternly reported, "No, Mr. Hock. Just doing a scan."

Hock returned his attention to the well-dressed duo before him. "I don't believe we've met. Donovan Hock."

Kasumi had written up Shepard's persona through interviews and articles, he was cold and impersonal with just a hint of well hidden rage.

Shepard kept his face stern and slightly dull, "Solomon Gunn." He had a feeling that Hock wouldn't have shook his hand even if he had bothered to extend it.

Hock kept both hands firmly behind his back and remarked, "You've been very busy lately, if the extranet is to be believed."

Hock turned his attention to Ms. Gunn and gently lifted Cynthia's hand, "And Ms. Alison Gunn I presume..." He kissed her hand and let it drop back down.

The Eclipse guard pulled Hock's attention back with an annoying observation, "Sir, the scanners aren't picking anything up."

Hock gazed thoughtfully at the golden face of Shepard's ex-archenemy. It wasn't like Saren's face was that great. Hock might be about to shoot Shepard and Cynthia. After an incredibly tense moment of silence, Hock decided. "Hmm... I don't think our guests would come all the way here from Illium just to cause trouble. Do you?"

That's exactly what they were here to do. The Eclipse Guard rubbed the back of his head and shrugged. Hock shifted his body to the left and finally let them through. "You may pass through, Mr. Gunn, with my apologies."

Shepard was about to take a step when Hock continued. "Just one more question. Why is it that your wife was in the back seat and the front passenger seat was empty?"

Shepard sighed, rolled his eyes, and made sure to speak like he was in a hurry and very angry. "I am becoming painfully aware that you seem to have an excess of questions and an inability to allow my privacy to stay intact. However, as the guest here I shall indulge you one, **last** time. I had an associate that needed to be removed at a time coincidentally similar to the timing of this party. It's very difficult to kick someone out of a moving car unless they're adjacent to you. Now. Do you have any more intrusive questions or may we proceed?"

Hock passive aggressively nodded and walked back inside. Shepard, Cynthia, and a cloaked Kasumi followed after a minute.

Cynthia just kept looking onwards as she muttered to Shepard, "Wow. You really pull off scary and pissed."

Shepard kept his stern demeanor and responded, "I've done this before. It's not hard."

Cynthia shrugged, "It never is."

* * *

The vault had three components, and there were three of them, so naturally the team split up.

Kasumi jumped down off a small ledge and started scanning Hock's room for DNA samples, Shepard had to get Hock's voice sample, and Cynthia had to disconnect the power. It was amazing how easily Kasumi knew how to break into a vault that well guarded.

As Cynthia used her omni tool to track the power cord she could see Shepard talking to Hock. He was a demon on the battlefield now, but before the cybernetic augmentations he just a lucky marine with a silver tongue. Now he could topple an empire or convince them to submit.

Hock began to give a toast. Everyone was focused on him, which made staring at an omni-tool less conspicious. Finally she found that the wires led to a statuette. She pulled it and and a small electrical panel revealed itself. Thank god Shepard never shut up and never allowed other people to shut up. She loved him like a brother... he sort of was her brother but nonetheless he couldn't just allow silence. Everyone was staring at Hock and not at her as she used her omni-tool to turn off the electricity leading to the vault.

Shepard was such a pessimist. A pessimist hidden behind an optimist, but still. She could read him like a book and thankfully things hadn't gone to hell like he undoubtedly thought they would. Now they just had to grab the greybox and go home.

* * *

Cynthia kept watch as Shepard put his armor back on. This should be simple, run into the vault, find the grey box, take it out... and maybe grab something light and valuable.

But nothing they did was ever simple. So why didn't she just get the hell out? She had that option now. Before she had reasoned that this was her duty, but the pain and tediousness of the missions had made her look to a different reason to stay. An oblivious turian reason. Not important right now, they were doing a big heist.

Cynthia could see Kasumi switch off a few cameras as Shepard put his chestpiece on with a small hissing sound as it sealed into place. She hated that sound.

They all crowded into the elevator and went down. It was kind of awkward. Three well armed people just standing in an elevator. It felt like an eternity down, but finally the door opened. Once the vault was visible Kasumi took one look and said, "So this is Hock's vault. Very nice."

There were dozens of beautiful statues and... and the Statue of Liberty's head. That was weird. Everyone took a couple of seconds to look around. There was lots of amazing things there. Statues of monsters and rachni and turian ships.

After a minute everyone walked over to the greybox. It was in a glass case with some nice guns. One of those guns already came with a replication. Kasumi muttered, "My god. There it is." She began to tap away at her omni-tool trying to mechanically unlock the case.

Cynthia leaned over towards Shepard and muttered,

"You were wrong. Nothing bad happened."

"I never said anything."

"You thought it."

Then the annoyingly accented voice of Donovan Hock, along with the annoying face of Donovan Hock appeared on the wall above the elevator door. "Don't bother, Ms. Goto. It's codelocked. I had a feeling that something was off about you two..."

He kept talking but the Shepards stopped listening.

Shepard leaned over to Cynthia. "I thought it. And I was right."

"You weren't that right."

"**That** right? I was right."

"But I know what you're thinking. I win."

"Oh come on, are you that petty?"

"I'll kill more than you."

"Theres no one to kill."

"There will be."

"... You're on."

Shepard noticed that both Kasumi and Hock were staring at them. Hock began to angrily say "Are you done! I'm talking here! And-"

Shepard stepped forward, "I apologize entirely but didn't your mother ever teach you not to interrupt a conversation?" Shepard nodded his head towards Cynthia and threw her some explosives. "And there is a penalty for being rude you know." He pulled out his gun and shot a valuable vase, shattering it into a dozen pieces.

Shepard grinned as Hock screamed "NOOOOOO!"

Shepard shot a few more valuable pieces in the room as Hock watched on in horror. Once he was done he asked with a smile, "Have I got your attention?" Kasumi chuckled and commented, "That shut him up."

Hock growled and yelled, "Kill him!"

Shepard's eyes widened and he ran for cover, and Cynthia ran from the door to behind cover. The moment the elevator door opened the explosives Cynthia set up exploded, instantly killing the mercenaries inside.

Everyone got out of cover and walked to the elevator. Kasumi stared at Shepard and asked, "You're lucky that didn't damage the elevator."

Shepard shared a glance with Cynthia. They... hadn't thought of that. They were preoccupied... Ah well.

Cynthia slowly responded, "We... knew it wouldn't."

Shepard nodded and they all moved back into the elevator for another awkward ride.

* * *

Everyone checked their equipment and prepared to move on. One more door and they were outside. The whole of the fighting throughout the building had been full of taunts towards Kasumi by Hock. It was sickening. If Shepard ever found Hock there wouldn't be enough of the crime lord to fight in a Volus' testicle.

Cynthia was supporting Kasumi throughout this. After the quick check Shepard opened the door and everyone stepped through. Everything was clear until a strange mechanical sound reverberated through the air and a gunship appeared from behind a railing. Shepard just leaned back a bit, "Oh come on."

Hock's voice came out of the gunship speakers and yelled, "You could have done this the easy way, Goto. Allow me to show you the hard way."

Shepard rolled his neck back, "So its gonna be like that. I hope you have your funeral arranged."

Dozens of Hock's Eclipse mercenaries came out and began to attack. Cynthia pulled outher SMG and pistol and dual wielded them to murder the mercs. Once Shepard and Kasumi were also out every mercenary dropped dead in a matter of seconds. Shepard muttered to Cynthia, "I'm up by seventeen."

"You're counting wrong. You're down by five."

Shepard rolled his eyes and kept shooting. They only went down back behind cover when the gunship came back to shoot them.

When it did come back up both Shepards pulled out their Collector Particle Beams and took down the shields of the ship. Hock manuvered left and right trying to avoid being shot. They kept shooting but that son of a bitch kept recharging his shields.

Finally Kasumi got an idea and quickly said, "I've got a clear shot and an idea. Here we go." She began running and jumping up the pipes. Shepard and Cynthia just stared with their guns in their hands as she jumped onto the gunship and initiated her omni-tool.

She EMPed the ship and finally the shields began to fade. After a weird gesture with her hand to Hock she jumped off and landed back onto the ground in front of the Shepards. John just stared and said, "Wow." Kasumi looked back at John and confirmed, "Shields down! Let's tear that thing apart!"

With a nod both Shepards resumed firing their particle beams until Hock began to try and fly away. That was a mistake. They both targeted an engine and barraged the ship until it began to flame up. Finally the gunship exploded in a hellish fire hundreds of yards away. Thankfully, it was too far away to rain pieces of debris on the team.

After the ship exploded Shepard and Cynthia systematically finished off the Eclipse mercs on the ground. Shepard grinned and put his weapon away as the shuttle came in. Everyone just shared a few glances and awkward moments as Kasumi said, "That was fun."

* * *

Shepard stood leaning against the shuttle wall as Kasumi viewed the contents of Keiji's greybox. He was still pondering the question this situation imposed. Remember and feel the pain or forget and lose the great memories? Kasumi was talking to the hologram of Keiji... she really loved him. Cynthia was more actively involved, standing right by Kasumi to try and support her through this emotional moment. Shepard could see the digital image of Kasumi as she interacted with what was left of Keiji and his memories.

Keiji asked Kasumi to destroy the greybox. She was naturally less than happy about the option. Once the holograms disappeared, she just looked at Shepard as if he was supposed to supply her with the answers. He took a moment before saying, "Is there any way you can just destroy the information?"

"No. Keiji's a master at encrypting files. He laced the information into his memories. You can't get one without experiencing the other."

Cynthia quickly said, "Keep the greybox. For the ability to stay with whats left of him... it's worth it."

Shepard took a deep breath. "Kasumi. Can you deal with the pain of being forced to remember every time you see him that he's dead and you'll never see him again?"

Cynthia shot Shepard an angry glare for wording it like that. Kasumi just stared off into the distance thoughtfully. "Yes."

Shepard nodded, "Then keep it. Just be sure you're willing to live with the consequences."

Kasumi nodded too. "Yeah. I am. I'll stay off the grid. No one will know I exist. I think I want this. Thanks, Shepard. Cyn."

Shepard smiled. It had been hell, but to see Kasumi happy like this it was worth it. Kasumi and Cynthia sat together as Shepard sat on the opposite side.

Shepard sighed. He needed a shower.

* * *

As Shepard went down to the second floor to check up on things and head back to the Citadel Kelly walked up to him, "Hi! So Garrus got some news that really put some fire in his eyes. You might want to go down and see him."

Shepard nodded and got back in the elevator.

* * *

WHOOO FINALLLY! Yeah. REVIEW DAMNIT! OR I'LL BEAT YOU WITH MY WRITAH POWAAAAAAAAH!


	18. An Eye for an Eye

I'M BACK BABEH! DO THE BENDER! DO THE BENDER! Sorry I haven't updated recently. Please review if you like it! Or if you don't! Or if you're willing to take pity on me!

* * *

It was a haze really. In the last several hours everything had gone to hell. It had begun like everything else in their lives, with preparation for a mission…

* * *

(Six hours earlier)

"Garrus, are you sure this is a good idea? Maybe it would just be best left alone?"

"I'm going. You're supposed to be my friend Shepard, but it's your choice."

With a weary sigh, Shepard continued to pack his weapons into the numerous holsters on his armor.

Tali and Cynthia were already ready to leave; Shepard had just been trying to stop Garrus from doing this.

He had gotten information from one of the many contacts he had acquired and now Garrus was ready to hunt Sidonis down. His quickness to react with murder without a second thought was deeply troubling.

Still, any chance to get the ridiculous disobedient Turian to listen to basic orders again was one Shepard would jump at. If they hadn't known each other beforehand, Garrus would already have been thrown out an airlock. His omni-tool went off, everyone else who was going on the mission was already ready. Time to hurry up and move out…

* * *

He was a Volus. Of all things, a **VOLUS!? **Come on! A krogan, sure, batarian or turian, of course, maybe even a human, asari, or salarian, but a Volus! By no means was Shepard a racist, but still, it was humorous to see the Volus stand there easily half the height of any of the people in the room, and attempt to be authoritative. Tali and Garrus were on his left, Cynthia on the right. If the… Volus… tried to pull something it wouldn't be hard to take out his two Krogan bodyguards. Shepard leaned back and led Garrus take the lead as he examined the room for strategic cover, just in case reinforcements came.

"Actually I want to see you make someone reappear."

"That's… not the service we offer."

Well then. By Shepard's calculations, the chance of leaving without someone getting shot just dropped.

"I think you can make an exception. Just this once."

Correction, not dropped, vanished.

The two bodyguards exchanged glances and aimed their shotguns at the rag-tag group of soldiers, only to be met with an assortment of weaponry directed right back at them.

Shepard took a few steps forward, keeping his gun steadily leveled.

"Maybe you two should just find somewhere else to skulk."

With a brief shrug they dispersed from the warehouse.

The Volus took a deep sigh and muttered to himself something about terrible security.

Garrus leaned down to "Fade's" eye-level and said "As I said before, I need to make someone reappear."

"Fade" slowly backed away, "Wait! I'm not Fade! I just handle the clients! Fade is a human ex-C-Sec officer! His name is Harkin and he's working with the Blue Suns!"

Shepard and Garrus exchanged a look and returned their piercing stares back to the non-Fade.

"I'm trying to find someone named Sidonis. Which is why you are going to tell me where that bastard Harkin is.** Right now.**"

The Volus hastily typed something into his omni-tool and transmitted it short-range to Garrus.

He checked his omni-tool to read the address the Volus had just sent him, then nodded and hastily walked off to the shuttle they had rented.

Tali ran off after him, Cynthia was prepared to follow, but she yielded as Shepard grasped her arm and pulled her back.

"Cynthia…"

The variety of the things he could say was endless. Why the hell are you so willing to trust Garrus? What the hell was Garrus going to do and how could they stop it? What the hell is it about that turian that makes you want to jump his bones? He settled aptly for "Be careful."

He promptly walked off. She knew just as well as he did that if someone got as close to someone who was burning with rage like Garrus, they would burn. That was all he needed to say.

* * *

The radio began to cut out in the shuttle. Garrus immediately looked up from his rifle and muttered, "Radio dead-spot. They're cutting it off. We're here."

With a sputter and a thump the shuttle landed, right in front of a door.

"Alright, John, Tali, Garrus, if this is the place we need to get into cover right away. The last thing we need is twenty dozen Blue Sun bastards crammed down our throat because they see a squad headed their way."

Shepard nodded once and enabled the tactical cloak he had bought for himself. Not many other people had taken to the idea, so Tali and Cynthia just scrambled for cover behind a few crates.

Without the slightest warning, the door slid open and several Blue Suns mercenaries quickly walked out escorting the infamous Harkin who, upon seeing Garrus, ordered the Blue Suns to fire and shifted towards the back of his merc group.

The sourceless voice of Shepard echoed out one simple word, "Now."

As soon as he had finished speaking, gunfire erupted. SMG fire, shotgun shells, assault rifle bullets and omni-blades all respectively came to life.

Gunfire cut down roughly half the enemies, but the tearing and ripping of Shepard's blades from out of nowhere either killed or heavily encouraged retreat-clumsily, off the ledge where the shuttle had been parked.

Once the gunfire died down, a terrified Harkin popped up from behind a small crate.

"Alright Harkin, I expect you to remember me. Now I'm only going to ask once. Where. Is. **SIDONIS!**" Garrus was enraged and screaming. Not an ideal situation.

Harkin ran away through the door to try and escape. The automatic door slammed shut, shielding Harkin from the series of bullets that raced after him.

"HARKIN! I will find you! And you will tell me where Sidonis is! I'm coming for you Harkin!" Garrus kept screaming obscenities and threats at the empty door until Shepard finally opened it to allow the brigade to storm through.

* * *

(Thirty minutes earlier)

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm not you."

"This isn't you either."

"Garrus, maybe you should just-"

"No."

The heated dialogue between Garrus and his Commander had been going on since the damn mission began. Harkin had almost walked away with a bullet in his leg. That was assuming Garrus wasn't actually going to kill him and the leg was just the beginning.

Garrus climbed out of the car with a loaded sniper rifle. "Really Shepard? I've always hated injustice. The thought that Sidonis could get away with this..." His voice cracked in the end part, despite all the pain and torture this turian had caused him, it was Garrus. And he was in so much pain it hurt to see it. Which made Tali and Cynthia's decisions to come along all the more confusing.

"Why should ten men lie in unmarked graves? Shepard. Words aren't going to solve this problem. I need to set up."

With a few moments of hesitation, Shepard nodded. Garrus took a brief look at the area and pointed at a tight corner overlooking the plaza. "I can get a clear shot from over there."

Shepard just nodded. "Tali, Cynthia, stay here."

Garrus walked off with his small entourage. There was no chance in hell Shepard was going to bring anyone else down to the base floor with him.

* * *

"Garrus... I'm here."

"Alright Shepard this is what we've been waiting for. Just let me line up my shot and keep him in place."

Sidonis walked up. He was in some sort of fancy turian clothing. It would be painted in blood any second now. But that was the real reason Shepard had come. This was never supposed to happen. Garrus should've been turned back long ago. Fuck.

"Okay let's not make this any longer than it has to be, Fade sent you, right" the doomed turian spoke. He was going to die. But Sidonis wasn't. Sidonis' life was worth little. He was a traitor and obviously a sellout. But with one bullet Garrus would kill both himself and Sidonis. And that wasn't going to happen.

"You're in my shot. Move to the side."

Shepard activated his comm. "No."

Keeping it on, Shepard glanced behind him to make sure he was still in the shot, then turned back and warned, "Listen, Sidonis, I'm here to help you."

Sidonis leaned in a bit before he spoke, "Don't ever say that name aloud."

"That doesn't matter anymore. Garrus Vakarian is in the rafters. He's going to kill you. I'm the only thing between you and a hole in the head."

The comm flared up, "Shepard. I'll say this once. Move."

Sidonis' eyes widened, and he just stared for a couple seconds before realizing the danger of the situation. "You're not kidding are you? Fuck. Look... I didn't want to do it... I didn't have a choice."

The homicidal rage burned through Garrus' voice. "Everyone has a choice."

"They got to me! Said they'd kill me if I didn't help. What was I supposed to do?"

Garrus was practically screaming, "He's a coward and a traitor! Move or I'll take the shot!"

Shepard met Sidonis dead in the eyes, "That's it? You were afraid?!"

Sidonis took a few steps to the right, and Shepard maintained his position in front of him.

"I know what I did. I know they died because of me and I have to live with that. I wake up every night... sick... and sweating. Each of their faces staring at me... accusing me. I'm already a dead man. I don't sleep. Food has no taste. Some days I just want it to be over."

Garrus let out a long, weary sigh. "He's not alive... there's nothing left to kill. Just... go. Tell him to go."

Shepard's face almost immediately lit up, he was genuinely expecting shots to be fired. "He's giving you a second chance, Sidonis. Don't waste it."

Sidonis raised his leaning position from a wall, "I'll try Garrus. I'll make it up to you somehow. Thank you for talking to him."

* * *

Fantastic. The god damn traitor got to go free. Not happening. Never. His men deserved better. Traitors don't get to walk away. Cynthia was on his left, Tali back near the car. He didn't need anyone for this though. It would actually be an issue. Because Sidonis doesn't get to go. He decided that beforehand, and he would never let it go. Ten men... all because of him.

Garrus sighed as Sidonis walked away. Then, within a second or two, he re-aligned his sniper rifle and centered it on the skull of the eleventh. "Shepard. He's going to die."

* * *

As soon as his comm picked it up, Shepard dove for the escaping turian, he wasn't going to get the damn shot. He was supposed to be past this, over it!

* * *

Garrus' scope was immediately filled with the arrogant and manipulative flesh of his idiotic commander. He has been planning this all along. There was no room for doubt.

Time stopped. Shepard was already flying towards Sidonis, preparing himself for the eventuality that we was going to die. From his position on the floor, Garrus was barely visible, but still he could be seen.

**He gazed at his 'friend'. For the first time, he accepted defeat. There was no redemption, the person before him was past the point of return. ********He was going to die. He understood why, he accepted it. If redemption could not be found in this man, how could any trust be placed in anyone? They were supposed to be friends. But his friend was going to shoot him.**

And then a shot rang out. And time's cruel game pushed forwards.


	19. Leaves Everyone Blind

Thank you people who reviewed. For those who didn't, just... okay?

* * *

He wasn't dead. Kind of easy to notice, not dying. Or maybe he was dead and the afterlife was just terribly uncomfortable. After all he was... on top of a turian!? That was going to be hard to explain. He just sort of stumbled out, "Are you alive?"

Sidonis took a moment for an awkward stare at Shepard before nodding slowly.

"Am I alive?"

Again, Sidonis nodded.

"Shit. Never the convenient route."

He pulled himself off the turian while trying to spin this as something other then Garrus almost shooting someone. Batarians? Reapers? Tackle drills for the Alliance? Mercs? Definitely mercs. "Okay listen up people, you have nothing to worry about. There were some mercs in this area, but they have all been neutralized by my team. Everything's fine, return to normal."

The crowds of people staring at Shepard slowly dispersed. Sidonis slowly rose up, "What really just happened?"

Shepard smiled and leaned in to the turian, "I have no idea, but if anyone **ever **asks you, mercenaries wanted to kill you."

Sidonis just nodded and asked, "Is it safe for me to move or will he try to shoot me again?"

"If Garrus wanted to kill either one of us, he probably could have. You're safe. He spared your life. Last second, but still. I suggest you leave before he changed his mind."

Sidonis hastily walked off, hoping to gain as much distance from this whole situation as possible.

Shepard himself had also had too much of the situation. Thank god Garrus had chosen the virtuous path. It certainly would've been a lot better if he was more decisive and just never fired a shot though. Alright, time to get back up to the car and get the hell out of here before C-Sec figured out that Blue Suns mercs weren't accompanied by a Spectre, a quarian, and a clone.

* * *

Shepard walked up to Garrus' perch to see a dumbstruck Garrus with Tali opposite him. "I'm just glad you were able to, you know, not shoot me. That would've just ruined my day. Since you intentionally missed, I'm just gonna go ahead and strike this up to ones you owe me. Now lets get the hell out of here before-"

There was something in between Garrus and Tali that he hadn't noticed before. The bleeding body of Cynthia Shepard. Garrus just stood and stared down at her body, leaning on his sniper rifle. His face was full of disbelief, and Tali just had her face buried in her hands. Shepard's piercing gaze rose from Cynthia to Garrus.

"What the fuck did you do?"

The dazed turian just shook his head before he choked out "I... I meant to hit Sidonis and she just... she... got in the way."

"So let me see if I have this right... Not only were you lying to me about walking away from Sidonis, you were going to shoot me to get to Sidonis, and instead you shot her?!"

Garrus began to crouch down to Cynthia, but before he could move Shepard's warning blared out, "Touch her and I'll kill you."

**Any option was preferable to the one he was about to make. Murder. It didn't have to end ****this way. But it had been forced, there was no alternative. He would have to kill yet another, and live with the consequences.**

Garrus immediately felt the menacing tone of Shepard's voice, and met him with a hard glare. "I'm taking her back to the Normandy, Shepard."

"No. You're not."

Tali just stood silently, she had seen John die, and now one of her close friends was going to die because Cynthia took a bullet from Garrus, for John. What a fucked up mess. How did it get to this point? A couple years ago, death and hatred were foreign concepts to her. Now they were daily occurrences.

Garrus' reverberating voice practically screamed at Shepard, "Spirits, John we have to get her to the Medical-Bay!"

"Me and Tali have to get her to Medical Bay. You're not allowed to go near her."

Garrus reached for his pistol, and whipped it out directly towards Shepard's face. "Fuck that. I'm walking out of here with her and I'm going to help her. You're not going to kill her like you killed Kaiden!"

******Death was rapidly approaching, taking a seat to watch the show before he had to go to work. For that was how this had to end. Death. With no alternative present, he prepared out his pistol to aim at the traitor before him. In all likelihood they would both die. That was fine. There was no point to living in a world where one cannot trust...whatever his opponent was to him. A friend? A meat-shield? An acquaintance? It was irrelevant. Whichever he was, death was coming to reclaim him. And still there was a chance. ****No one would care that much. Garrus would pass away and they would move on, complete the mission. But he couldn't raise his pistol. He wouldn't kill again. Revenge would not control him.**

God damnit. He was going to die. But he wasn't going to die without letting Garrus know the score. "It's your bullet in her chest. If you're going to kill me in addition to her... Just do it."

Shock rippled across the faces of both Tali and Garrus. Garrus just slowly lowered his pistol and stumbled backwards onto a crate. "It... wasn't supposed to go this way. You couldn't just let Sidonis die?! Everyone has to be your puppets and follow your moral code?!"

Shepard chuckled grimly, despite the situation. "No. I let revenge control me. I killed hundreds, maybe thousands of batarians in the Anhur Rebellions. They killed my father in the Skyllian Blitz so I killed them all. I murdered every single last one of them on Elysium, then went from colony to colony wiping them out. On Torfan I sent my men to die and then I killed surrendering batarians in revenge. I let hatred control me and it destroyed me. I didn't want the same to happen to you."

Tali just walked over to Cynthia and started applying medi-gel, the stand-off essentially completed.

Garrus just looked down at the crumpled up body of Cynthia Shepard. He might have killed her. He might not have. But he tried to kill Sidonis knowing full well it might've killed Shepard.

Shepard just kept his grim smile. "We're one down before we've even gone to the Collector Base. I was wrong Garrus. I think you should know that. I was wrong about you."

Garrus just glanced up looking for a bit of forgiveness from his commander.

"I was wrong to try to hold back your pain. You deserve this. You ungrateful shit. Are you happy Garrus? Your revenge cost you a dear friend. Satisfied? Or do you still need to go hunting down after one man, because he lived?"

Garrus just couldn't help but stare at Cynthia. He had everything. A home on one of the galaxy's most advanced ships. As many targets as he needed. Friends. Then he got rash. And now he had no idea where his future would be.

Tali looked up at Shepard, "That's enough John. If she is going to have any chance of making it, we have to get her back now."

Shepard nodded. "Help me load her into the car, Garrus. We'll discuss your punishment later."

Garrus just vacantly nodded as he lifted Cynthia up with Shepard's help. What the hell had he just done? What was the punishment going to be? Regardless, one thought circulated through his head over and over again. "Please Cynthia, hang in there. I had so much more to say. We had so much more to do. Please."

* * *

Garrus paced back and forth in the conference room. Shepard had confined him there while Dr. Chakwas received Cynthia. Garrus was entirely out of the loop, he had no idea how she was doing, and no idea what was happening. It was hell. This may be the most pained Cynthia would ever be, and he couldn't be there for her.

Shepard was right. He was pathetic. He would take every chance to make amends to Cynthia for what he had done, and to Shepard as well. He had aimed a gun at his commander, and more importantly, his friend. The car ride to the Normandy was silent. No one said a thing, Tali and Garrus just tried to put pressure on Cynthia's wound in the back seat. She didn't make eye contact for the whole ride. He didn't blame her.

Finally, a reprieve from his mental torture came, the red and locked doors to the conference room turned green, and a very grim Shepard walked through.

Garrus leaned on the table and hopefully looked at Shepard. "How is she? She's okay, right? Shepard please tell me she's okay."

He just stared at Shepard. If she was alright, things could be pieced together from there. That's all it took. Her being alive.

"No, she's not alright Garrus. You shot her. Chakwas tried, but she bled out. She's dead."

Everything hit Garrus at that exact moment, and he collapsed back against the wall, sinking to the floor. "Oh..."

Shepard stared down Garrus, but the turian just chose to avert his eyes. Shepard walked around the table and over to Garrus, still looking down on him. "There's more. I've thought it over. There are no other options. You're leaving Garrus. I don't want you on the Normandy any more. I can't trust you. You have one hour to pack your bags and get off. We can take you to the Citadel, or back to Omega, but you're not staying here."

Garrus just put his focus back on Shepard. He just maintained eye contact for a couple of minutes before he nodded. "I... I understand."

Shepard began to walk out of the room, and nothing seemed different. The same commander, powerful and authoritative. But still there was just one thing that had to be done. After all this, it was the least that could be said. "John."

Shepard stopped dead in his tracks. Garrus just stared at the back of his head and choked out the last thing he would ever say to Commander John Shepard. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Shepard bowed his head, and then just walked out of the room.

* * *

Garrus took another drink, Shepard had been kind enough to give him a bit of money before he was thrown out of his home. The Normandy is where he belonged. He knew that. Tali knew it. Shepard damn well knew it too. But still, it was better than being shot... He was still trying to convince himself of that. He had considered it more than once after Shepard died. He had lost his home and his friends then too. But now he had shattered his life of his own accord. C-Sec was always an option. There was a bitter taste in his mouth just from saying that. And on top of all this, he killed Cynthia Shepard. He would never be able to get past that. He'd figure his life out one hangover after another. This world had nothing left for him. He was just a shell, so he might as well take down as many criminals as he could in the time he had left.

* * *

Shepard fell down on his bed. 'Long day' wasn't nearly enough to explain what had happened today. Shitstorm was a bit more appropriate. Everything had gone to hell in... fuck. Twelve hours. In the long run, nothing was changed. The plan to go through the Omega-4 Relay was still in place. Just two people less would be going. Well, actually one less. The guilt over what he had done today would never be erased. Kicking Garrus off the Normandy. That was something. But still, it had to be done. The small beeping sound of his door opening prompted Shepard to sit up and focus on the quarian now walking into his quarters. "Oh. Tali. Listen, right now isn't a great ti-"

"You bosh-tet. Garrus stopped by to say goodbye to me before he left. He said that you were forcing him off the Normandy. He also said that Cynthia was dead. Keelah John, what was going through your head?"

Tali stood over a befuddled Shepard sitting on his bed. "I... He went too far. He was willing to take the shot, despite my orders, despite my pleas, and despite the fact that he would've hit me too. I couldn't let him stay Tali. You know that if I thought there was another option I would've kept him."John, you used to say that we were family on the Normandy. What Garrus did is... shocking. But when you say that we're family, you can't just shove them away. Back on the original Normandy, you never would've done anything like this!"

"Back on the original Normandy things were so easy. Now I'm working with Cerberus, back then I would've arrested or shot anyone working with or for them. Things have changed so much since I was resurrected."

"One thing hasn't changed. Garrus was your friend. **Our **friend. And you're prepared to abandon him?"

"I can't have him aiming a gun at my head whenever he disagrees with me. He's too volatile."

Tali took a deep sigh and sat down on the bed next to Shepard. "... Maybe you're right. I just don't think we should do this to Garrus... But what he did... Shepard. I don't regret a minute I've spent with you, from the very beginning in that alley to now. But before I met you things were so much easier. Now it's just death and destruction everywhere I look."

"I know what you mean. And I know that what I've done is just as unforgivable as what Garrus has done."

Shepard and Tali just sat there for what felt like years, reminiscing the 'good old days' as compared to the hell they were now in.

* * *

When he finally opened his eyes, EDI's voice had finally stirred him from sleep. A still-suited Tali had one arm draped around his shoulders. Shepard gently lifted her arm and walked over to EDI's console. "Ugh... Okay EDI. I'm up. What is it?"

"Shepard, Cynthia is awake. And she is requesting your presence."

Shepard's groggy eyes snapped open. "Oh."

He walked through the doors to his quarters and chose to go down the elevator. Once he hit deck three, he walked into the Medical Bay to see an irate green-eyed and raven-haired woman in a bed. She immediately greeted him with "So I almost died. That was fun. Care to fill in my spotty memory?"

Shepard rubbed the back of his head. This was going to be awkward. He was hoping to be at least a couple systems away from the Citadel when she woke up.

"Alright Cynthia... well... Chakwas could you give us some privacy?"

Chakwas raised her eyebrow at Shepard before deciding whatever he needed must be important, and leaving with a curt nod.

Cynthia looked at Shepard expectingly. "Well?"

"Cynthia... Garrus shot you. He was aiming for Sidonis, I tackled Sidonis, and Garrus still fired. You jumped in front of him and took the bullet. I had to force Garrus off the Normandy. But you're here so-"

Cynthia's hand struck across Shepard's face without hesitation. "Idiot. Garrus is family. You don't get to evict family. Get him back here."

"Ow! What the hell! What?"

"You want to kick Garrus out because his revenge consumed him, and yet you fucked up on Torfan."

"And?"

"And you, the person who did sooooo terribly on Torfan, became the first human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel, et cetera, et cetera. This is Garrus' Torfan. He didn't even take any lives, but from now on he'll be loyal to you, and friendly with the rest of the crew. He's a changed turian and you'll let him back."

"What makes you sure I'll let him back on the Normandy?"

"Because even though my argument is terrible and you've made a decision, you regret it and you want him back."

"Yeah... I kind of dug my own grave in that department..."

"Oh for god's... what the hell did you do John?"

"Well... if Garrus knew you were alive he would've stayed here until you recovered. Then forever. He was a loose cannon and I needed to get rid of him so..."

"So you told him I was dead. Idiot. Go fix it now John. Don't make this mistake. Not a request by the way, that's a command."

It would be so great if Shepard could tell Cynthia she couldn't give him commands, but they both knew a hundred reasons why she could. He just sort of pathetically nodded and walked out.

Tali had woken up and was waiting outside of the Medical-Bay door. "John, what did Cynthia want?"

Shepard just grunted and walked towards the elevator, "I'm going to get Garrus."

Tali just stared at Shepard, it was obvious she had no idea what had just happened. "What caused the change of heart?"

"A black haired witch with a bullet in her chest." The elevator doors closed and Shepard went to reclaim the teammate he had just kicked out."

* * *

Shepard found Garrus standing on the rafters over the Wards just staring at the floor.

Shepard silently trudged up and leaned on the railings next to Garrus, attempting to open things with a simple "Hey."

Garrus glanced at Shepard, then back to the floor below. "Shepard."

A few moments of silence passed before Shepard realized where they were. "Wait a minute. This is..."

"Yeah. Dr Michel's old clinic."

"Huh. Where is she?"

"Closed down. New location. Presidiums."

Shepard sighed, this was just resulting in useless small talk.

"Garrus. Let me cut to the chase. I acted rashly and I want you back. I'm sorry. Cynthia's alive too, I lied about that because I thought you wouldn't leave if she was alive."

Garrus just stared at the floor with a dead expression.

"I know, Shepard."

Shepard just took a glance to Garrus before returning his focus back to the floor full of people below.

"Yeah. Tali sent me a message. And Cynthia sent me a message. I can't tell if they were trying to make this worse or easier for you."

Shepard's eyebrow raised before re-settling. "Anyways. Garrus. I reacted the way I did because I thought you were a loose cannon I had to dispose of."

"I get it. And I reacted violently because I was consumed by revenge and I just wanted to put a bullet in Sidonis' head."

Garrus just focused on the blank spot where Michel's clinic used to be.

"You were right Shepard. things were always black and white for me, but gray... I just don't know what to do with gray."

Shepard chuckled lightly, "Well the woman who you shot told me I was an idiot for making you leave the moment she woke up. You're doing pretty good for the most part."

A flicker of happiness reappeared on Garrus' face.

"Garrus. I'm sorry. I was wrong to try and make you leave the Normandy, it's as much your home as mine. And besides, no matter what you do its not like I could do any of this myself."

"Of course you could. Just not as stylishly."

They both shared a laugh, that was actually rare now.

"Shepard, I'm sorry too. I've made an ass of myself since I got onto the new Normandy and I just went too far this time."

Shepard rubbed the back of his head. "Its good to laugh with you again Garrus. These last two months have been utter hell. Garrus, I tried to stop you because you were going down the path I chose on Torfan, and after Torfan I didn't feel happy. I didn't feel satisfied. I spent night after night with a gun in my hands, contemplating whether I deserved to live. I couldn't let that happen to you. I used to remember the face of every person I killed. Now I've forgotten them all. They all look the same to me Garrus. Revenge is an acid that eats away until theres nothing left, with no exceptions."

Garrus' eyes filled with regret for the question he knew he didn't want the answer to. "Shepard, aren't you the exception to everything?"

Shepard's silence was enough of an answer.

Garrus bowed his head. "Well, when you put it like that you did me a favor. I hated you Shepard. I did. For no good reason but that you died and left me to a world where my squad got killed."

Shepard nodded briefly and continued to stare at the floor. "Yeah. Garrus, I'm sorry."

Yet again, silence reigned. Garrus was happy enough to let the matter fall and just ask, "So... you and Tali?"

Shepard grinned. "Well don't act like you haven't been staring at my sister."

Garrus began to stutter, "Oh crap. Shepard, I-I I was just staring because she has a very supportive waist! I mean a uh... a nice fringe? She's uh... uh..."

"Relax Garrus. I'm sure if you told her you admired her waist she would take it as a compliment if you know what I mean. Just, don't tell her she has a nice fringe."

Garrus just muttered, "Oh..." and changed the subject to Shepard and Tali.

Finally things were (essentially) back to normal. Tali and Cynthia had basically dropped the matter as soon as Shepard and Garrus made up, and everything was rapidly forgotten by Shepard and Garrus as well.

As Shepard reflected on the path the whole affair had taken over the past two months, Garrus went down to the Main Battery, presumably to continue his damn calibrations.

* * *

The door opened and Garrus walked into the Battery to find Cynthia leaning on the console. "Hey Garrus."

Garrus was taken aback, she was waiting here for him, and she seemed to be wearing the wrong size dress. It was very low on her chest and high on her legs. Despite all the great other things to say Garrus blurted out, "You uh, hair looks... good, and your waist is... very... supportive."

Cynthia raised an eyebrow, "And that's supposed to mean what exactly?"

"Uh... its what I'd tell a turian woman?"

"So... thats your way of telling me I'm pretty."

"Yes! Thats the word! I-no you're not. I mean, yes you are I just don't consider you a-well I think that you're a-the thing is that you and I-"

"You really think I'm pretty?"

"Uh... yes. Unless it offends you or-"

Cynthia smiled and cocked her head, "Garrus, do turians have teeth or acid saliva or something?"

Garrus tried to calm himself and took a few seconds to think. "Well, no, but-"

Cynthia closed the door, pinned Garrus to the wall and kissed him.

* * *

Well I edited the ending. See, I don't spout some crap about artistic integrity (Bioware!). Let me know what you thought.


	20. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Okay, a new chapter. Please review, it's how I determine the viability of this continuity. Also, thank you to all my fans who have helped me reach 10,000 views.

* * *

Garrus nervously fiddled with his hands while he sat in the cot he had convinced Shepard to place in the Main Battery. Next to him was Cynthia.

Several hours worth of awkward silence were broken by Cynthia. "That was... good. Is the, uh, chafing normal?"

Garrus shook his head and just stared at his feet in silence. This whole thing had happened quick enough that Garrus was still trying to retrace how they had gotten to here from an idiotic compliment.

Garrus and Cynthia respectively rose from the cot to the cold metal floor and re-dressed themselves. Cynthia adjusted her shirt and asked, "So uh... did this happen or not?

Garrus shook his head, "I... I don't know. I'm sorry about this, but this is happening very quickly for me."

"Yeah. No kidding."

Garrus rubbed the back of his neck with all three of his fingers. "Look, I'm... very confused about everything that has happened in the last couple of hours, but I think it might be best if we did the opposite of what we just did, and think about this."

"Yeah, okay, its just that I-"

Joker's voice rang over the com into the Main Battery, "Hey if you two are done with your whole weird inter-species thing then Shepard says he needs you on Deck 5 to leave for Pragia."

Cynthia pinched her nose, "Oh for the love of god... Joker, did you have the cameras here on the whole damn time!?"

"Well... um... I... my gut tells me... no?"

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Your gut damn well better be right."

"Yes ma'am. Anyway. Deck 5."

Garrus sighed, "Okay. We can discuss this once we get back."

Cynthia nodded, "Yeah, and until we figure this out, could we keep this under wraps?"

"Yeah, of course. But if Joker knows..."

"Shit. Soon everyone will know. I have some death threats to make, be right back."

"You're so sexy when you're murder-y."

Cynthia winked at Garrus and left the room.

* * *

The shuttle descent was amazingly quick. The pilot obviously was made somewhat nervous having Jack on board. Still, since it was just supposed to be planting a bomb and getting out, only the core squad was there, and Jack.

"Look, all I'm saying is that it wouldn't kill you to wear a shirt on the Normandy."

"All I'm saying is I'll kill you if you try to make me do something on the Normandy."

Cynthia and Jack were having one of their 'best friend talks' while Shepard talked with Tali and Garrus.

"Shotgun."

"Sniper."

"Pistols. Dual wielding pistols. Any day."

"Keelah Garrus, you can't really think a sniper is better than a shotgun? Shotguns are powerful. Snipers are only useful if you have the time to reload once every shot and the enemy has no shields."

"Shotguns are erratic and require you to get up to where the enemy can kill you themselves. Snipers are methodical, they require timing and precision."

Shepard pulled out his pistols and ignited his omni blades, striking a 'heroic' stance. "Look at me. Garrus. Tali. Look at me. Need I say more?"

Jack glanced over to Shepard. "You look like a pussy."

Everyone laughed but Shepard as he disengaged his omni blades and sat back down, feigning injury to his pride.

* * *

In the last half hour Shepard had been called a pussy, a pansy, and basically every other synonym that was available. His current theory was that his attempt to connect with Jack on an emotional level was going well. She pulled this crap whenever she felt vulnerable. Jack was always the elusive exception to his natural charisma, and it was with the best intentions that he was going to fix that.

Still, seeing the place where Jack was raised made a lot of things much clearer. She was forged out of a place of cruelty and fear. It made sense that she would reflect that. The main door opened to reveal a krogan in some distinctive armor, accompanied by several vorcha and other krogan. He was muttering something to someone on his comm, ignoring the heavily armed group of people right in front of him. He nodded a few times. Shepard raised an eyebrow. "You planning to kill us?"

"Yeah, then I get to figure out why the hell I'm he-"

Tali overloaded his shields, Cynthia, Shepard, and Jack concentrated their fire to rip apart his armor, and Garrus sent a bullet right between the krogan's eyes, all in a matter of seconds

Shepard rolled his eyes. "Boring conversation anyway. Anyway, whoever wants to leave, I suggest you hurry. A bomb is going to go off here in about... what do you think Jack? Thirty minutes?"

"Less."

"You heard the woman. You have twenty minutes to get the hell off this planet."

The various krogan and vorcha of the mercenary group grumbled, but they had enough sense to leave, seeing their leader dead on the floor was apparently enough for them. On the way out behind Shepard a krogan angrily muttered something about being attacked by a dead man. Shepard grabbed the krogan and asked, "Who was your boss talking to?"

"Some asshole named Aresh. Keep going, he'll be there."

Jack turned to Shepard once they had all left. "Why the fuck didn't we just kill them?"

Shepard sighed. "Is none of this getting through to you? Morality? Not everyone wants to kill you? Cultivate allies? None of the stuff I'm doing seems like a good idea to you?"

"Nope."

"Oh for the love of... yeah okay. Lets go."

A few more hallways yielded what Jack claimed to be her old room. Shepard didn't even have to take a step in before he was able to confidently say, "Come on out Aresh. Your mercenaries were very cooperative, we know you're here."

A human with brown hair and a beard came out from behind a few crates in front of what was presumably Jack's old bed.

Jack was happy enough to ask, "Who are you?" instead of killing Aresh.

"My name is Aresh, and you are breaking into my home. I know you, Subject Zero. So many years have passed, and I thought I was the only survivor."

As soon as he mentioned her name (or rather, title) Jack aimed a pistol at his head. He was entirely unfazed. "My name is Jack, how the hell do you know me?"

"We all knew your face, Jack. They inflicted horrors on us so their experiments wouldn't kill you. You were the question and I'm still looking for the answer."

This man was clearly mentally unhinged, but coming from this place clearly had that effect on everybody. Those who weren't dead were crazy, or at least verging near that.

Cynthia glanced at Jack, "I guess you weren't the only one drawn back here, Jack."

Aresh spoke to Cynthia now, "I tried to forget this. But a place like this... it doesn't forget you. It follows you. I hired these mercs and came back almost a solar year ago. We're rebuilding it, piece by piece. I'm going to find out what they knew-how to unlock true biotic potential in humans. I'm restarting the Teltin facility. It will be... beautiful."

Okay, so there was no doubt this asshole was batshit insane.

Jack's face grew even more expressive of her anger as she looked at Shepard, "I wanted a hole in the ground-he's trying to justify what happened by using it!"

Shepard sighed, undoubtedly his logic was going to be extremely flawed, but still he had to ask. "You'd do the same thing to new kids? Wasn't this forced on you?"

"Some were bought from poor families on Earth, or kidnapped from colonies. Most ended up here the same way I did: Batarian pirates. They did such horrible things to us. They must have had good reasons."

Jack kept her aim steady as she said through gritted teeth, "There's no reason good enough! Are you nuts? You lived it!"

Shepard sighed, this had to escalate from placing a bomb to the Blood Pack and another victim of the Teltin facility. Nothing is ever simple. "Alright, Jack, we can blow this place up but that still leaves him. What do we do with another you?"

Jack lowered her gun and walked over to Aresh, "That's easy."

Aresh said in his seemingly standard monotone voice, "Just leave me here. This is where I belong."

Jack used her biotics to make him fall over onto the ground, accompanied with a "Fuck that!" Any second now she was going to put a bullet in his head.

Shepard made no motion to help Aresh, this was her decision. Still, some interference was warranted. "Jack, he's trapped in his past. You need to move on from yours."

Jack didn't move a muscle, "He wants to restart this place. He needs to die!"

"He's crazy, and he's never going to restart this facility. You have to let it go. Your past doesn't have to control you."

Jack glanced at Shepard and then back to Aresh. "Fuck!"

She lowered her pistol and Aresh got up. "Get out of here! Go!" Aresh ran away, obviously frightened by Jack's show of power.

Jack looked down and explained her reasoning. "He's not worth chasing. None of it is."

Shepard nodded, "You did the right thing. I'm proud of you Jack."

Jack looked up and met Shepard's eyes. "Maybe. This room was my whole childhood. Give me a minute to look around."

Shepard nodded and began to leave with the rest of his squad. Jack called over to him, "Shepard, you might need to stay in case those Blood Pack bastards come back."

It was a terrible excuse. She actually wanted him there.

"Nothing's changed... but it's all different" Jack said as she looked over the room.

As she moved around the room, Jack narrated her life as Subject Zero. "Sometimes I dream that I'm back in this bed, being tortured. I used to tie the sheets around my wrists and try to rip them off. I want to stop coming back here."

"I used this table for everything. It was like my best friend. I'd crawl under it to cry. I was pathetic."

Near the exit to the room she put her fingers to the wall. "See the scarring on this wall here? That's where I killed my first man. One of the guards tried to stop me. Instead I stopped him."

Gesturing out the window, Jack said "I thought that room out there was the rest of the world. I'd pound and yell. Never did any good."

Shepard sighed and stared out the window with Jack next to him. "Jack... you may never enjoy or appreciate what I'm about to do, but I think you need it, even if you'll never admit it."

He turned towards her and put his arms around her. She just stood, without making a movement or a sound.

Shepard disengaged and Jack took a deep labored breath. "Okay. No more wallowing. Let's blow this place to hell."

* * *

Their victory was celebrated in silence on the shuttle ride back to the Normandy. The only sound was the clicking of the detonator as Jack flipped open and closed the cap. For the first time since he had met her, Jack had a distraught look on her face. Shepard nodded and slammed his fist on the door to the cockpit, alerting the pilot to hurry up. Jack pressed down on the button and the shuttle shook enough to dislodge everyone from their seats as the explosion rocketed out from the Teltin facility. Everyone sat down again and the shuttle proceeded on course to the Normandy.

* * *

The whole squad was gathered in the conference room to discuss the preparation for retrieving the IFF. They were scheduled to go obtain the IFF in one week. Shepard looked over his to-do list, he had assisted Miranda, Jacob, Kasumi, Garrus, Thane, and Jack. Grunt, Mordin, Samara, Tali, Zaeed and even Cynthia all had their own requests as well. It was getting to the point where he was becoming less of a commander and more of a damn therapist.

"Alright, as far as the IFF retrieval goes, we'll be taking a while to resolve some personal disputes and then we can proceed, and all the upgrades each one of you contributed have gone in beautifully."

As Shepard continued to talk about various other project updates, Cynthia and Shepard stood in the back of the room, near the door. As the briefing proceeded Jack's focus moved away from Shepard, and towards the odd couple in the back. Shepard was unceremoniously interrupted as Jack concluded in a very loud voice, "Holy shit! Garrus and Cynthia have fucked each other!"

All eyes in the room moved towards Garrus and Cynthia, who accidentally closed the already small distance between each other.

Zaeed grinned, "Come on Shepard! Garrus banged your sister! Punch him in the face like you did that time in the Cargo Bay!"

Shepard's face was solemn. "When was... it?"

Garrus sighed. "Right after the incident on the Citadel."

Shepard's solemn expression began to lighten and he started laughing. "But that was after... oh my god... oh my... HAHAHA! Oh for the love of god... Cynthia please tell me it wasn't because he complemented the supportiveness of your waist! Please for the love of..."

Shepard practically collapsed onto the conference table as he continued to laugh.

Garrus asked with a bit of surprise, "Um... actually yes, sort of."

Shepard lifted himself off the table and wiped away a tear, "Heh. Garrus you're such a... smooth... talker." Shepard coughed and stopped laughing. "Ahem. Meeting dismissed."

Garrus looked to his left at the door as everyone slowly dismissed themselves except Tali, Shepard, and Cynthia. Tali nodded and simply said, "You two really are a nice match. Good luck to the both of you."

Shepard grinned and stared at both of them. "Really Cynthia? He walked up to you and said 'Cynthia, your hips are very supportive' and you just jumped him? Heh. I can't believe you convinced me to put a cot in the Main Battery 'so I can manage to keep a more constant watch on the weapons systems'. Okay, whatever you like. Good luck you two."

Shepard kept his grin as he walked out. Cynthia and Garrus exchanged a look once the door slammed shut.

Garrus sighed. "That went well."

"So much for keeping all this quiet."

* * *

Shepard took the elevator up to his cabin and opened his private messages. There were several messages of thanks and one from Oriana, but the only one that caught his eye was some information from Cerberus.

To: Shepard  
From: Cerberus Information Processing

We're aware that your old friend Liara T'Soni has been hunting for the Shadow Broker for several years. We wouldn't mind helping her in that hunt, given the Broker's past work for the Collectors. We recently uncovered some information that might give Liara a lead on where to find the Shadow Broker's base of operations, but unfortunately, she doesn't have much faith in Cerberus intel. If you'd visit Illium and pass it on to her as a gesture of goodwill, we'd appreciate it.

* * *

Sorry if this chapter was a bit crude, I think it's obvious what the next will be about. Thanks for 10k views!


	21. Tela Vasir

I was kind of looking forward to doing this for a while now. I hope you enjoy it. And please review, my attitude towards updating is directly affected by the number of reviews I have.

* * *

Shepard walked into Liara's office with Tali and Garrus following behind him. Liara glanced up at Shepard from her console before concluding her call and looking up at the trio of her old friends.

"Shepard, I'm sorry but I'm very busy. I really can't afford to-"

"Cerberus found a lead on the Shadow Broker. We're going to investigate." Shepard pulled out a data disk and passed it to her, "It's an encrypted transmission."

Liara's eyes widened immediately. "Yes. Of Course. Meet me at my apartment" Liara said as she uploaded her address directly to Shepard's omni-tool "here's the address."

She opened her comm to her receptionist, "Selucia, hold my calls indefinitely. I'm going on vacation." Liara abruptly walked out of the office.

Cynthia glanced at Liara before turning to Shepard, "That information definitely has Liara tense. What do you think the Broker did to her?"

Shepard walked out of the office with the rest of the squad accompanying him, "I have no idea, all I know is that this is personal for her."

* * *

The shuttle touched down outside Liara's apartment building. It had been a couple of hours, there was business to be done on Illium and the ride was long. Still, Shepard had sent a message to Liara informing her of the delay, so she should still be ready to receive them and tell them what she found on the disk.

One elevator ride to Liara's apartment later, Shepard opened the door to Liara's home to find police and digital crime tape littering the whole apartment. One thing immediately caught Shepard's eye. There was one asari, second floor to his right that clearly wasn't police. She was heavily armed and in a crime scene, obviously a Spectre. No one else came that armed right into a crime zone and commanded that much respect. If she was a Justicar, everyone would be giving her a much wider berth.

"This area is sealed off. Please, all of you, step back." Shepard's attention snapped back to the police officer in front of him. Shepard examined the room slowly as he replied, "What happened here?"

The asari from the second floor walked down the stairs and answered for the asari, "Someone tried to kill your friend, Commander Shepard."

The Spectre walked down to the second floor and addressed the officer, "Thank you officer, your people are dismissed."

The asari angrily protested, "You can't do that!"

With a nonchalant wave of her hand the Spectre dismissed the asari, "Its already done."

All of the police closed their investigation and left immediately, requiring no more persuasion from the Spectre.

Shepard and his crew walked past the digital crime tape and up the stairs to the Spectre.

"Tela Vasir. Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."

"Commander Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance."

"I had heard that you were reinstated. Good. You were one of our most famous operatives. Might even get you to sign my chest plate. So. I assume that you had business with your friend this evening Commander."

Shepard carefully examined Tela Vasir's face as she talked, eventually saying, "Yeah. Liara was following a lead on the Shadow Broker."

"The Shadow Broker? Dangerous enemy to have."

Shepard nodded and scanned the room for something he had missed before asking, "What are the facts so far?"

"About twenty five minutes ago someone took a shot at T'Soni," Vasir pointed at the window behind her, "note the bullet holes. She stuck around for about four minutes before leaving the building. Whatever she was doing was important."

"Liara was expecting me, she left a message."

"I'm not surprised, Illium is just Omega with expensive shoes. I haven't found anything useful to track her down yet. You knew her better than I did, where would she have hidden her back-ups?"

"We'll look around."

Everyone split up to examine pieces of Liara's apartment. The first thing Shepard noticed was some old N7 armor in a glass case. It was broken, burned and shattered. It was his. Where would Liara have gotten that from? Shepard felt the casing and drifted into memory.

_"Tali, the distress beacon is ready for launch. I need you to go help people into the shuttle."_

_"No, John I'm not leaving you here! Besides, Joker is still in the cockpit, he won't leave."_

_ "Tali, that was** not** a question, go now!"_

"John?"

Shepard withdrew his fingers from the glass casing and abruptly looked at Tali. "Sorry, just got lost in thought."

Tali returned to examining a Prothean artifact as Shepard moved up the stairs.

On the nightstand next to Liara's bed was a picture of the Normandy SR-1. Shepard walked over to the pad with the picture on it and picked it up. After a few seconds, the image changed to a Prothean digsite. It was obviously keyed to his ID. Any other clues would probably also be keyed to his ID.

Shepard systematically proceeded through the apartment, tapping, poking and prodding all the Prothean artifacts he could find. Finally he got results in the form of a hidden tray with a disk in it.

Shepard examined it for a few seconds and put it under his omni-tool to scan. Then he walked over to her terminal and popped the back-up disk in.

Everyone's eyes turned to the terminal as it played a call

"What have you got for me Sekat?"

"It was tricky Liara, but you payed for the best. I can narrow it down to a cluster, maybe even a system."

"How soon can you have it?"

"Shouldn't take long. Meet me at my office, at Baria Frontiers in the Dracon Trade Center. Gotta say though T'Soni, you're making me a little nervous. How big is the trouble that could come out of this?"

"Relax Sekat, I'll see you in a few hours."

As soon as the call concluded Vasir walked up to Shepard, "I know where the Dracon Trade Center is, my car is outside."

* * *

Once the car touched down and the doors flipped open everyone disembarked and prepared their weapons in case the assassin re-appeared.

"The Baria Frontier offices are on the third floor," Vasir pointed at one of the building's higher levels "I don't hear police chatter. We must have missed the party."

Suddenly explosions ripped through the air and pieces of glass rained down from what Shepard could only assume was the third floor, subsequently, explosions blew out of the second and fourth floors, "Shit! Liara's in there!"

Cynthia withdrew her SMGs, "Shepard this visual is rapidly deteriorating! What do we do?"

Vasir ran back to her car, "They just took out three floors to make sure she's dead! I'm taking the skycar to seal the building off from the top!"

Shepard yelled back to her, "I'll start here and work my way up!"

Vasir was already in motion and flying away.

Shepard started running through the building, there was no possibility that Shepard was giving those bastard Shadow Broker assassins a chance to kill Liara... if she wasn't already dead. Damn. He had already lost Kaiden, and he was bringing Tali and Garrus on a literal suicide mission. Liara was always the perfect confidant, and an amazing friend. All around him were injured civilians bleeding and dying, but this information about the Shadow Broker might save so many more...

"Normandy, do you read? This is Shepard. Joker, you there?"

"Yeah, Commander. What's up?"

"Send the rest of the squad to the Dracon Trade Center. Have them assist the wounded and wipe out any Shadow Broker agents they find."

"I'll tell them."

Shepard proceeded to the objective much more easily, knowing that the wounded would be tended to and protected by the medical capabilities of the Normandy's crew.

Still, not knowing the status of Liara's life being in question wouldn't allow Shepard to lay his mind to rest on the matter.

"She's one of us. She'll survive, John" Cynthia assured Shepard.

"If anyone can live through that bosh'tet Shadow Broker's attack, it's Liara."

Shepard glanced back at Tali and Cynthia, "Thanks, you two."

A few minutes later they finally came to the entry to the Baria Frontiers office. Shepard carefully examined the logbook, "Vasir, Liara checked in five minutes ago."

Eventually the group came to a busted gas line culminating in fire bursting out into the hallway. A quick patch to the fire extinguisher system remedied this.

"Vasir, the civilians were muttering something about mercs, what do you know-" a bullet flew by Shepard's shoulder "oh shit... Never mind!"

Shepard disengaged his comm and pulled out his pistols, "Who wants to die first?"

* * *

Shepard reloaded his pistol, "Okay, now it's your turn, I really am sorry to do this but your hands are soaked in blood. Where is Liara T'Soni?"

The merc kneeling on the floor coughed and replied, "You think I would betray the Broker? Fuck you."

Shepard sighed, "sorry" then shot the merc in the head. "Alright lets go."

Individually the group 'finished' their interrogations and moved onwards.

Finally they arrived at the correct office, 'Keral Sekat'.

Shepard heard a shot from the room, someone was obviously in there with Sekat. If Sekat survived the explosion that is. Then, strangely, there was a second shot...

The group burst in with guns ready to fire, only to find Tela Vasir standing over the corpse of a Shadow Broker merc and the salarian easily recognizable from the disk as Sekat.

She holstered her pistol and unemotionally stated, "Damn it. If I had been a few seconds faster I could have stopped them."

Shepard bent down to check Sekat's corpse, "No sign of that data Liara was talking about. Looks like a dead end."

Vasir crudely asked, "Speaking of which, did you find your friend's body?"

"You mean this body?" Liara walked from the shadows with a pistol leveled at Vasir's head.

Shepard grinned, "good to see you again Liara" and pulled out his pistols. "Let me see if I've got this straight. Vasir, you tried to kill Liara and then broke into her apartment, hoping to find the intel she had. Then you tried to trick me into getting you the intel. Once you found out where Liara was, you called in the bombing, and killed Sekat. How am I doing?"

Liara shot a bewildered look at Shepard "That's... absolutely correct."

Shepard rolled his eyes, "And why do you sound surprised?"

Liara turned her focus back to Vasir, "I bet she still has the disk on her."

"Good guess, Not that you'll ever see it... you pureblood-"

Shepard's eyes widened and he dove into the biotically-charged asari, shattering the glass and forcing her to levitate them both as they struggled for the disk mid-air.

Unfortunately, Vasir gained the upper hand and kicked Shepard back down to the ground with an audible thud.

Vasir landed with finesse and on her feet. She began to biotically charge her attacks to the already recovering Shepard, but the sound as Liara used her own biotics to land safely forced Vasir to turn and run, with Liara on her heels and Shepard right behind her.

Vasir slid around a ledge as two mercs rose from the staircase, only to be met with a biotic shove from Liara and two headshots from Shepard.

Tali, Garrus, and Cynthia were left dumbstruck in Sekat's office, before they chose to take the stairs as opposed to a painful fall.

Shepard managed to pass Liara as he got closer and closer to Vasir. The asari Spectre slipped the disk into a pocket as she ran, noting Shepard's increasing speed.

Shepard yelled after her as they rounded a corner, "Vasir! I'm a god damn cyborg! You're not gonna win this!"

Vasir opened her mouth to talk, but was interrupted as Shepard managed to tackle her again, the struggle lasted just a few seconds before Vasir biotically pushed Shepard off her.

Shepard grabbed Liara by the arm as he got up. "We're going a different way."

"Shepard! She's getting away!"

"She won't. I have a team. Follow me."

Shepard ran down the opposite hallway to the docked skycars.

"Goddess, Shepard! We can't let her get-"

"For the love of god, just trust me!"

Shepard looked at Liara, "Which one is yours?"

"That one! You're lucky its this dock and not the one on the other side of the building Shepard."

"It's not luck. I have a team."

Shepard got in the driver's seat and Liara in the passanger's seat.

"Shepard, this is great, but she had a hell of a head start on us!"

Shepard glared at Liara, "I. Have. A. Team."

* * *

Vasir stood in the biotic bubble she had created for herself to shield herself from the onslaught of fire that had come from the heavily armed reinforcements that had been waiting for her in the lobby. There was a krogan, a drell, and even the damn asari Justicar that had reportedly been on Illium a couple of weeks ago.

Using all of her biotic strength, Vasir managed to charge past the group and to the skycar dock. She stumbled into her car and managed to lift off the ground, that pureblood bitch and the traitor Spectre sure as hell weren't making this easy.

* * *

Tali pushed Garrus in and moved in so that Cynthia could get in the skycar as well. Shepard had been kind enough to stop by and let them in, against Liara's will to catch Vasir. As Shepard picked them up, Miranda opened her comms with him, "Shepard! She got past us, but we managed to delay her a few minutes. She'll be easy to notice. We tagged her, and besides, one of her car doors is missing."

"Thanks Miranda. Finish off any stray mercs you can find and head back to the Normandy."

Liara shot another bewildered look at Shepard, "Okay, your method is also effective."

"Damn right." Once the doors on Cynthia's side sealed shut, Shepard set the speed to the maximum and started driving towards the tagging beacon.

Their movement was flawless, ducking and weaving through oncoming traffic like it was nothing.

Tali remarked from the back, "Keelah Shepard, this is amazing, when did you get so good at driving?"

"I've always been good at driving!"

Garrus snorted, "You used to crash the Mako at least twice before reaching any objective. Why do you think I had to spend so much time repairing it?"

"The same reason you sleep in the damn Battery?"

"Calibrations are important, Shepard! They're the lifeblood of a ship and-"

Shepard hit a turn and Garrus slammed against the door, not hard enough to dent his armor, but enough to make a point.

"Oh fine. You're a **perfect **driver Shepard and that's why-oh crap- that's why you're looking at me and not the sky!"

Shepard's head snapped back to the sky and he dodged an oncoming truck.

"... Not a word Garrus."

"I didn't say anything, Shepard."

"Not a word!"

Finally, the skycar managed to catch up to Vasir as she ducked into a tunnel.

Shepard cruised next to Vasir, "Liara, what are the guns on this thing?"

"Guns? Guns?! SHEPARD! IT'S A CAR! IT HAS A SPEEDOMETER!"

Shepard looked over at Vasir who glanced at him and then grabbed the disc, she was about to crush it before Shepard rammed her with the car, throwing the disk out of her hands

Shepard rolled his eyes, "Civilians... Liara, drive for me."

Liara turned to Shepard, "Shepard! Just ram her! We can-"

Shepard took his hand off the interface and it manifested itself on Liara's side of the car

Without hesitation she took control and maintained their course next to Vasir. Shepard, on the other hand, leaned back, initiated his omni-blades, and made two pairs of parallel slices to cut a rectangular hole in the roof, before he smashed the window of the left car door outwards. "Tali, Garrus, Cynthia, if you have the shot, fire!"

Cynthia aimed her pistol through the car window while Tali and Garrus stood, popping their upper bodies out of the roof and firing at Vasir.

Shepard looked through the car window on his side, Vasir was incredibly adept at evading bullets in a vehicle. Shepard shot out Liara's window and punched out his own. Liara glanced at him, "I get your window, but why did you need to break my window?"

Shepard looked at Liara sheepishly and paused for a second before replying, "Something to hold on to."

Liara frowned at Shepard before she realized what he was doing and started rapidly objecting, "No! No, no, no, please Shepard, Goddess, NO!"

Shepard looked at the trio in the back seat, "Garrus, Tali, duck."

They simultaneously disappeared back into the car without argument. Shepard leaned back into his chair before he kicked out the windshield, fortunately it blew above the car as Shepard projected. Shepard put his helmet on to lessen the blow of the wind in his face and crawled through the car windshield.

Tali muttered to him, "John... Be careful."

With a reassuring grin, Shepard returned, "You worry too much. I'm always careful."

Slowly, Shepard rose to a crouched position and dug his omni tools into the skycar, aiming carefully to not hit any important components. He turned around and yelled back to Liara through the gusting winds, "Get me closer!"

Liara nodded and moved almost right next to Vasir, they were still in the tunnel but any second now they would burst out into the open sky, where if Shepard fell he would splattered by the earth as he hit it, or by a car as he fell.

Shepard pulled out his pistol and aimed at Vasir, managing to crack the windshield and blow out a window, but Vasir's barriers were too strong to let any damage happen to her personally. Vasir rammed the car, causing Shepard to temporarily lose his balance and fly off the hood and back into the tunnel.

"Shepard!" Liara cried in agony.

"Kind of busy, Liara!"

Liara looked through the hole in the roof to see Shepard clinging to the flying car by digging his fingers into the interior of the car's top, where the windows would've normally covered.

Shepard braced himself as Liara hit the speed to catch up the quickly-escaping Vasir. He yelled down into the car, "Liara! Use your biotics! Throw me at the car when we get close enough!"

Liara shook her head in disagreement, but nonetheless she transferred the driving interface to Cynthia and a blue flare appeared around her.

Vasir was scrambling to find the disk she had dropped in her car, any second now she would destroy it. Liara's car zipped in right behind Vasir and right as Vasir was about to swerve, Shepard jumped.

Liara used her biotics to throw Shepard forwards, letting him land with a thump and a dent on the hood of Vasir's car. She immediately biotically flung the windshield of her car outwards. Shepard slammed himself against the hood to try and flatten himself out, he was successful. The windshield flew over his head and above, falling to Illium's earth. Vasir's biotics flared back up, but Shepard returned to a crouching position and aimed a right hook directly at Vasir's jaw. Shepard noticed the disk between the two seats and reached for it.

Vasir, recovering from the punch she had taken, was about to put her attention back on the interface, but the fire from Cynthia's SMGs and Tali's pistol suppressed her enough that she just put it on automatic; the car would fly straight ahead.

Garrus' sniper sent the decisive shot, a tungsten bullet ripped through Vasir's armor; the impact of the shot alone was enough to slam the asari back against her own, fortunately closed car door.

Shepard grabbed the disk and ran across Vasir's rooftop, letting the wind propel him back onto the hood of Liara's car.

He climbed back into his seat and took a deep breath. His first instinct was to turn around and assure Tali of his safety. "See? I went up against a strong biotic in a precarious position. So careful."

Liara nodded at Shepard and began to pull up. Shepard put his hand on her arm, "Not yet. She's a rogue Spectre, we have an obligation to take her down."

Liara stared down Shepard and proceeded straight for six seconds, before breaking off and turning down to follow the injured Vasir.

Shepard called out a shot as soon as her car was in sight, "Garrus! Hit her engine!"

Garrus snapped his sniper rifle to the location Shepard pointed to and fired. His aim was true, almost instantaneously flames burst out of her car as Vasir went into a spiral downwards.

Shepard turned to Liara, "We have to make sure."

Liara shot another angry look at Shepard before complying to his demands and following Vasir's crashing skycar.

Even as she fell, Vasir had some tricks up here sleeve. A compartment opened up in the back of Vasir's car and a mine flew out. Shepard warned, "Liara! Mine!"

Liara pulled up, but the rear end of the car hit the mine and it knocked out the engines of their car as well. The skycar spun out and crashed on top of another skycar in the parking lot of a building.

Everyone groaned as their skycar slid off the parked one and onto the ground. Liara got out of the car and started walking towards the entry to the hotel. Shepard, Cynthia, Garrus and Tali all climbed out of the car and ran to catch up with Liara. As the group proceeded their a hotel room to Vasir's crash site, Shepard noticed a room with a giant screen featuring half-naked asari.

"Uh... Liara? Just what kind of hotel is this?

"Azure. It's a luxury resort with an... exotic edge. 'Azure is slang for a part of the asari body in some areas of Illium."

"Where?"

"Mainly the lower reaches, near the bottom."

"I meant where on the asari body."

"So did I."

Shepard's eyes widened. "Oh. Wonderful. I expanded my vocabulary. I feel so multicultural."

The group walked outside to the balcony to find Vasir's car and a trail of blue blood leading away.

Liara bent down for a moment, "She's lost a lot of blood. We have to be getting close."

"She's tough, I'll give her that" Shepard remarked.

"She's a Spectre."

A woman's scream pierced the air. Shepard and Liara exchanged a look before they began to run, following the blood trail.

The woman was huddled in the corner, she was frightened to see a bleeding asari trudge past her and towards the restaurant, but otherwise unharmed.

Vasir held her stomach and limped across the outdoor restaurant area.

Liara aimed her pistol at Vasir and warned, "Vasir, it's over."

Hearing this, the rogue Spectre turned around and made a light biotic slide to a human waitress, "What's your name?" she asked the woman as Vasir put her arms around the human's neck and aimed a pistol at Shepard.

The woman stuttered out, "M-M-Mariana."

In a soothing and yet terrifying voice, Vasir said, "Mariana. You want to live, don't you? Tell those people that you want to live."

As the woman cried she choked out, "Please..."

Shepard made eye contact with the woman, "Mariana, you're going to be alright."

Vasir put her gun to Mariana's head now, "All you had to do was walk away, Shepard. Now it gets ugly."

Mariana pleaded again, "Please, I have a son."

"A son? I hope he gets to see you again. I've heard losing a parent is just horrific for children. Scars them for life."

Liara angrily threatened, "I'm going to end you, Vasir."

Shepard turned his head to Liara, "It's okay Liara, we'll handle it. The usual way."

Vasir drew the attention back to her, "You want Mariana's little boy to grow up without a mommy, Shepard? Thermal clips on the ground, now. Power cells too."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "That's it?"

Vasir's expression was one of shock, "What?"

"Idiot. I unleashed the rachni on the galaxy! I am the Butcher of Torfan! The Lion of Elysium! I mercilessly slaughtered batarians then, I sacrificed countless human lives to save the Destiny Ascension, need I go on? Needless to say, you're little hostage won't stop me from doing my job."

Vasir loosened her grip just a little as she stared intently at Shepard, no doubt trying to determine whether or not he was bluffing.

Shepard grinned, "Now, Liara."

A table from behind Vasir floated into the air and slammed into her, throwing her into one of the nearby fountains.

Shepard looked at Mariana, "Run!"

Mariana made it past a door and locked it, Vasir would be too consumed with Shepard's squad to pursue her. Well, too consumed for about five seconds before- Shepard fired his M-920 Cain at Vasir as soon as she biotically ascended out of the fountain. Liara stared at Shepard as Garrus, Tali, and Shepard moved down to the fountain.

Liara asked Shepard, "Did you just... disintegrate Vasir with a nuke-launcher?"

Shepard yelled back to Liara, "Well, it's not an actual nuke-launcher, just a massive explosion. Plus Vasir had full barriers and armor up, so..."

Shepard yanked Vasir out of the fountain and placed her leaning against the metal structure of the mountain. Her armor was practically gone, the few pieces that weren't incinerated and blown away were burnt and fused to her body. Vasir coughed up a large portion of water. After a few seconds of silence, she opened her eyes and let out in a rasping voice, "Damnit... You're... dead... The Shadow Broker has been in power for decades... He's stronger than anything you've ever faced." Vasir took several seconds to take weak breaths.

Shepard looked the dying Vasir in the eyes, "Is that why you sold out the Counsel to work for him?"

"You think I betrayed the Counsel? Like Saren? Like **you**? Go to hell... The Broker has given me damn good intel over the years. He helped me... save lives... keep the Citadel safe... so I'll pay his price without hesitation..."

Shepard regarded Vasir coldly, "You crossed the line of what Spectres should do, even if its not the line of what they can do. You're a disgrace."

Vasir chuckled in a horrible, grating way. "The Counsel... You ditched them... Played dead for two years... Came back working for terrorists... You're the disgrace... The traitor... Do you even have any idea what Cerberus has done?"

"My relationship with Cerberus is tenuous at best. Because I know what they are, but the Counsel won't help me, so I need to take what I can get."

"I read the files, Shepard... Kidnapping kids for biotic death camps... Akuze-"

"Admiral Kahoku. The attempted enslavement of the rachni, and of Thorian creepers. I was there for most of it."

"And yet, you're with them... Don't you dare... judge.. me... Don't... you..." Vasir's eyes rolled back in her head and her corpse slumped onto the ground.

Shepard sighed, despite all she had done, she was a Spectre. Vasir had probably saved as many lives as she had taken. Shepard closed her eyelids and placed her on her back, with her hands crossed on her chest.

Shepard detached the omni-tool frame and gave it to Tali, "Search this for any useful information when you can."

Tali nodded and glanced at the door through which Liara had disappeared, back where they came. Shepard looked at it too, he made a gesture for the squad to follow him as he walked through the door to find Liara listening to what they had found on Vasir's corpse, her personal datapad information, uploaded to Liara's omni-tool.

In a voice disguiser, orders came from the message, "Eliminate T'Soni and retrieve the data. Civilian casualties not a concern.

Shepard sighed and informed Liara, "Vasir is dead."

Liara nodded and, without turning around to face Shepard, remarked, "I've uploaded the data to Normandy's computers. We can be at the Shadow Broker's base in a few hours. He'll know about Vasir before long. If he decides to kill Feron..."

Shepard stopped in his tracks, "Feron? Is Feron the friend of yours that was taken by the Shadow Broker?"

Liara stopped dead as soon as he asked that question. She bowed her head. "Shepard... There's something I haven't told you. I wasn't just on any old mission with Feron. I was getting your corpse to Cerberus."

Shepard, jaw fell, "What?"

"Miranda, the same Miranda that is now on your ship, she contacted me on behalf of Cerberus. She said she could revive you. I retrieved you from Alchera, but the Shadow Broker's agents were after me. Feron was one of those agents, but he betrayed them because the Broker began to work with the Collectors. He held off the Broker's forces so I could escape with you. The information you gave me, when decrypted, was about Feron. He's alive on Hagalaz, the planet the Shadow Broker is on.

Shepard took a moment to think. "Thank you."

Liara lifted her head up and turned around, "What?"

"Liara, you gave me my life back. You gave Cynthia her life by extension. Without you, I would still be dead. Thank you."

Shepard hugged Liara, then Cynthia did, followed by Tali and Garrus.

They all disengaged. Shepard responded to Liara's initial worry, "We'll get Feron out of there alive, Liara."

Liara nodded, "I know. You're here to help. Just like always." For some reason, Liara looked doleful as she said this. Shepard asked inquisitively, "That's not a good thing?" Liara took a moment to think before replying, "When we first met on Therum, you saved me from the geth. You fought a Krogan Battlemaster while I cowered. And now you're doing it again. And I'm still leaning on you for help."

Shepard replied simplistically, "That's what friends do, Liara." Without a response, Liara walked away towards the parking area again and began to talk again.

"I can get us there based on Sekat's data. We'll need the Normandy's stealth systems to get us in close and undetected. The Shadow Broker's agents are still scrambling to recoup their losses, thanks to you. With luck, they won't notice they've left until it's too late."

Shepard stopped again, "That's cold, Liara. They killed innocent people!"

Liara turned back to face him again, "You know what I mean, Shepard."

Shepard took a few more steps towards Liara, "Do I? When I hit the ground at the Dracon Trade Center, you went on without so much as a backwards glance."

Liara looked slightly regretful, she leaned on the railing of the balcony, "A little fall wasn't going to kill you. I had to stay on Vasir. I had to stay rational, make the call, like I did with Sekat."

Shepard interjected, "That was Vasir's fault, not yours!"

Liara shook her head. "Sekat had no idea what the stakes were. I put him in harm's way to get the data I needed. I got him killed. And I'd do it again."

Liara took a step back from the balcony railing, "But from now on out, things will be simple. Get in, get Feron and get out. And kill anyone who tries to stop us."

"That's it?" Shepard angrily asked.

Liara calmly replied, "That's it."

Shepard put his hand on her shoulder, "Will you just stop for a second!? We're going to be jumping several light years, there's time to talk."

Liara coldly asked, "About what?"

Shepard's eyes glazed over a bit as he lost himself in memory.

_Liara rose from her work table behind the Med-Bay. "Commander. Are you coming to check up on me?"_

_"Yeah, I was worried about you, but you look much better." Shepard's scar over his eye was still noticeable, his black hair matted with sweat from endless nights of nightmares about the Prothean Beacon. But still, even though he had done his best to maintain the emotional shell he kept up, he wasn't going to be discourteous. _

_"Dr. Chakwas assures me that I am going to be fine. I was impressed with her knowledge of asari physiology."_

_"You're in very good hands. Dr. Chakwas is one of the best, she knows what she's doing."_

_"I never got the chance to thank you for saving me from the geth on Therum, Commander. If you hadn't shown up, I..."_

_A false smile adorned Shepard's face, not for deception, but to relax the obviously nervous asari. She was shaking a little, and kept looking away from him._

_"I'm just glad we got there in time."_

_"So am I. I know you took a chance, bringing me aboard this ship-"_

_"I didn't. You say you're not like Benezia, and I believe you. I didn't take a chance."_

_Liara nodded slowly, it was subtle, but he saw it in her face. She was relieved that he believed she was nothing like Benezia. "Thank you, Commander. I know not all of your crew trusts me, but I will help you with your mission against Saren the best I can."_

_"Don't worry, Liara, I know you won't let me down. I trust you."_

_Liara smiled, "It means a lot to hear you say that Commander, thank you."_

_"So tell me about yourself, Liara."_

_"Me? Well I spend most of my time on remote digs, and..."_

Shepard stared at the Liara before him. Colder. Angrier. Much like himself. "You're... just not the same since I got back."

Liara's face was twisted in sorrow, "What do you want me to say, Shepard? That I mourned you? That I spent nights and weeks crying for you, that we all did? That I feel guilty that Feron got captured? I made mistakes. I lost people. I helped get you back, and I want to do the same for Feron. I'll sit and talk once he's safe. Until then, enjoying the scenery is an insult to the man who saved both of us."

"You're wrong. It's not an insult to Feron, it's proof that you're still you. I want to talk like we used to, Liara."

Liara sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Okay, Shepard. We can chit-chat on the way there. But when Feron is released, then we can really talk."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Shepard's face and then disappeared. "Deal."

* * *

Cynthia and Garrus were taking the elevator to the third deck, Tali had already gone down to her level, and they had to get back to work. But more importantly...

"We need to talk about us, and what that whole... thing... meant." Garrus restated.

Cynthia nodded slightly, "Yeah we do. Or..."

* * *

"So how was getting re-acquainted with Joker?" Shepard asked Liara as she walked past him at the galaxy map.

"He's still the same, Shepard. But he still blames himself for your... He feels guilty, and he's worried about you. What worries him more is that Anderson and Hackett assigned **him** to take care of **you** for them."

Shepard's face contorted into a sorrowful expression. "Hmm... I didn't know he... Thank you, Liara. You can stay in the Crew's Quarters, you already met EDI, correct?"

Liara nodded.

"Okay, well EDI can show you there."

Liara tapped on the elevator summoning button. Several seconds passed, and the doors didn't open. Liara turned to Shepard, "Does it always take this long?"

"No..." Shepard asked, mystified.

EDI's avatar and voice appeared, "I believe I can explain this, Officer Vakarian and Mrs. Shepard have initiated a lockdown of the elevator so that they can perform maintenance on the elevator.

Liara looked at Shepard, "Maintenance?"

"Yeah I guess so. I mean- wait... What's that?"

They could hear faint voices coming from the elevator shaft, it was probably Garrus and Cynthia. It was definitely Garrus and Cynthia. Which made the contents all the more disturbing.

**"Ahhhh! Oh my god! Garrus! Garrus! Garrus!"**

**"Cynthia! Spiiiriiits!"**

Liara stared at the elevator with a look of horror. "Are they... doing what I think they're doing?"

"Yeah. They're having sex in the elevator. For the love of god... Okay, EDI, is there a non-elevator passage to the third deck?"

"Yes, Shepard. There is a ladder in Dr. Solus' laboratory."

"A ladder? No stairs or anything? We have to crawl around on a ladder? Who would possibly think that was a good idea?" Shepard angrily replied.

"Shepard, it is a back-up system, the Cerberus engineers did not think it would ever be necessary. Besides, I enjoy the sight of organics on their knees."

Shepard and Liara's eyes widened as they stared at EDI's circular avatar.

"That was a joke."

"Shepard?"

"Yes, Liara?"

"EDI is an AI, correct?"

"Yes."

"I think she wants to be our overlord."

"I'm scared too."

* * *

So, longer chapter than normal. I hope you guys enjoy it, I'm going to follow it up with a finishing part to the Shadow Broker DLC.


	22. The Definition of Betrayel

So between Vasir and the Shadow Broker I just had an idea for some filler. By the way, if this was unclear, Tali and Shepard just sleep in the same bed sometimes, that's it.

* * *

Tali awoke in Shepard's bed with her suit on to find him sitting and staring at the wall.

"Shepard?

Shepard turned around to find Tali's glowing eyes aimed at him, "Oh, sorry Tali, did I wake you? I'll try to be more quiet."

"No I... what are you doing?"

Shepard sighed, stood up and turned around. Between his hands were a shot glass and a beautiful glass case of some type of alcohol.

"Shepard?"

"It's uh... whiskey."

"Why do you have that?" Tali rose to an upright position in the bed, he had drunk a small, but noticeable amount on the old Normandy. When they had reconnected, she was under the impression that the habit was dead. "I thought you had stopped drinking?"

"I have, for the most part. It's just a bad habit from back when I was a young Alliance soldier. Every time I wake up I pour myself a shot of whiskey. I've kind of been hiding it from you, but- well here we are."

"Keelah, John, why would you possibly need to drink so much?" Tali asked with a hint of what could be anger, but was more likely disappointment. He hated that inflection so much. In all likelihood, she just wanted to preserve his health, but this was something he felt the need to do.

"Like I said, old habit when I thought my life was ruined. But now I just... Every day the future darkens. The Reapers are closer, the chances of death are higher. But the past just keeps getting brighter. I suppose I'm trying to remind myself of that. You'd be surprised how much it helps me think, too."

"What are you thinking about?"

Shepard sat back down, turning his focus back to the wall, his eyes occasionally darting to the fish tank and the hamster on a shelf. "Tali, I'm going to ask you something, I want to know the honest truth. Please, for my sake, don't bend the truth."

"Of course, John. What is it?"

Several minutes of silence passed, Tali thought that he had just given up on telling her, but he finally said, "Am I a traitor? For working with Cerberus, I mean."

Tali vaguely recalled when Vasir had told Shepard that she wasn't a traitor like he was. "Shepard, I..."

"You don't have to answer right now. I just want you to think about this for me, and remind me if... if I go too far."

Tali didn't quite know the answer herself, but Shepard was obviously troubled by this, so she felt it was her job to help him. "No, Shepard. You're not a traitor."

Shepard chuckled darkly, "Tali. You're pretty, intelligent, and caring. But you're a terrible liar."

Amazed by Shepard's ability to see through her light deception, Tali recoiled slightly. "Shepard... Whether or not you're a traitor depends on the perspective. Through the eyes of officials, you're working with a terrorist group. They think that means that you have turned your back on them. But you haven't. When your ties to the Alliance or the Counsel calls you back, it will be your loyalty that brings you there. Cerberus is a means to an end, and although I don't agree with it, I don't see a way around it."

The answer seemed to satisfy Shepard, because he opened a drawer in his nightstand and placed the Whiskey container and glass inside of it. "Thank you Tali."

"Of course, John. That's what I'm here for."

Shepard bowed his head. "Tali. It pains me to know that I've never said this to you before. I've sort of held you at an arms length and I'm sorry for that. Ever since I first saw you and you were able to help me find evidence on Saren, you've brought me peace. Before I met you and the Saren incident started I... I was going to kill myself, Tali. I'd tried therapy, medication, hell even hypnosis. None of it worked. The guilt I felt after the Anhur Rebellions was just too much. After Eden Prime I figured I would deal with Saren as a last mission, instead. I was still planning to off myself. But when I saw you in that alleyway... I felt peace for the first time in seven years. I felt this way, Tali because I... I love you." He had never said that to a woman before. He had flings and passing attractions as a teenager and into his adulthood, but he threw himself into his work and didn't really give a damn about any of them until Tali.

Tali shrank away from Shepard as he said this, both the suicide and the professing of love was shocking. Then it dawned on her that while Shepard had shown interest and affection towards her, he had never said that he loved her. "Keelah, Shepard. I mean, a young woman gets rescued by a dashing Commander who lets her join his crew and then goes off to save the galaxy? That's something straight out of quarian mythology. John... I love you too."

Shepard's demeanor didn't change, but her response obviously phased him. Instead of leaving as soon as he woke up, or rather, leaving as soon as he had a shot of whiskey, he lingered for another few minutes before standing back up and moving towards the door. "I've got work to do. Thank you Tali. Good night."

The door to Shepard's cabin opened and closed shut. Tali lay back down and thought about what had caused this line of thought in John. Despite how it seemed to just have been a high-risk mission to the people outside his closest friends, it was obvious Vasir's accusations had cut him deeply. As much as she tried to continue pondering Shepard's train of thought, her shift had been long and she eventually dozed into a deep sleep.

* * *

Thank you. For those of you who regularly read my work, I applaud you. However, reviews are the means by which I determine if I did something wrong or not in that chapter. My usage of humor, violence, sex, all of these things vary with how you review. Every day I check for reviews and read them if there are new ones. That is why I implore you to review, if only to tell me what you would like to see happen in this storyline. Until next chapter, au revoir.


	23. A Turian by Any Other Race

Admittedly Cynthia/Garrus sort of falls under Tali/John in my book, but again, like last chapter, inspiration struck like a pile of bricks that end up caving in dozens of skulls. This actually takes place before last chapter, but right after Chapter 22. This is really a little snippet of a chapter, but if I updated and put it on the end of Chapter 22 no one would notice and it would never be read at all. Hope you like it, I promise, next chapter, they go through the Shadow Broker base.

* * *

Cynthia and Garrus sat in silence on the cot in the Main Battery. After their little incident in the elevator, Shepard had called Cynthia and Garrus to the Main Battery and locked them in until they, as he said, "Stopped screwing each other and define the relationship."

So far, the only feelings floating around were those of shame and regret. It felt like they were being scolded by Shepard. Which they actually were...

"So..." Cynthia broke the silence awkwardly.

"Yeah..." Garrus responded sheepishly.

"How are we supposed to begin this kind of thing?"

"Just as awkwardly as we here right now."

"So..."

"Yeah..."

The same conversation had happened about twenty times in the last few hours.

Finally the pattern was broken as Garrus opened his omni-tool to read out loud a message from Shepard, "Question number one: Where do you see this relationship going?"

Cynthia snorted softly, "Oh my god that's so stupid."

Garrus scoffed, "So stupid... But um... where do you see this going?"

"I don't know Garrus, I just... I like you a lot but... I mean for the love of god, you have mandibles! There may be too many differences between us for this to work."

"Yeah... so maybe we should just end this now Cynthia."

"I think so... but the elevator sex was amazing."

"Yeah, I don't want that to stop."

Cynthia sighed, "Okay friends is not gonna work."

Cynthia took a deep breath. "Okay... Garrus I'm not particularly good at all this touchy-feely crap but uh... I mean... could this really even work? I can still feel the chafing... You're turian, and I'm human. This can't work, right?"

"I don't know... there have been lots of inter-species relationships. Even here on the Normandy Tali and Shepard have a working relationship."

Cynthia's face was incredibly difficult to read. Then again, human faces in general were hard to read for Garrus. "Yes, but they got a head-start, I didn't even exist back when they were... relationshipping. We would be starting this on a suicide mission. Garrus, I don't want to start something if-"

"If what?" Garrus asked, anticipating Cynthia's pause.

"If one of us doesn't come back."

The sudden reality of Cynthia's hesitance hit Garrus, it wasn't that she didn't think it would work or anything of that vein, she just didn't want to form a stronger connection that could be so easily severed by the Collectors.

Garrus' face contorted into something similar to a smile and he turned to Cynthia. "What if I promise I'll come back?"

"Garrus, really. I know you can't make that type of promise."

"Well, I can always just let Grunt run ahead of me. There won't be enough of the Collectors for a Varren to eat.

"Garrus, I'm being serious."

"Cynthia. I'll come back. I promise that."

"You're so full of shit."

"Maybe. But I still promise it. Cynthia I really want this to work out, and if all that requires is me not getting killed, then I won't get killed."

Cynthia pensively stared at her ceiling for a minute or two. "Well... if you promise, then I suppose I have to give you something to come back to..."

With a playful push, Garrus fell on the bed and Cynthia climbed on top of him.

Garrus hesitantly responded to the situation, "You know... Shepard did want a tangible definition by the time he got back."

"Ugh, you're so persistant. Okay, fine. You can tell Shepard that we're dating, and we'll confine our activities to the Main Battery and avoid riding the elevator at all times."

Garrus shrugged, "good enough for me" as he began to unclasp his armor.

* * *

So I think I progressed their relationship, at least a little. Please, please review.


	24. The Broker

So I managed to delay this with two chapters, but here it is. Enjoy and review.

* * *

"Stop giving them ideas!"

"I'm just saying, they would be a lot more effective if they were using mechs and using the lightning rods on us!" Liara defended herself.

"I know what you're saying, STOP SAYING IT!" Shepard had used up roughly a thousand bullets in the last half hour, the Shadow Broker's peons were quick to arrive and much more skilled then most of the pathetic mercenaries that he had face before. Even the Collectors were slightly slower to respond, but then again he had only been within a ship, not on their base.

Tali just worked away at the door, trying to accelerate the door hacking program Liara had brought, "Keelah! Will you two shut up and shoot them?"

Shepard emptied a clip of his assault rifle into a wave of thugs coming in from the east. "A lot easier said then done, Tali!"

Liara yelled out to compensate for the extreme interference with comms, "Extra squads coming in from my side!"

"We really need to work out what the definition of 'extra' is, Liara!" Shepard yelled back.

"Enough that I can't handle them all!"

"Again, we need to work on this definition!"

Shepard turned around to see about twice what he had expected on Liara's side of the ship. "Okay. Definition clarified." He was really starting to regret benching Garrus and Cynthia for this. Still, what they had done in the elevator was reprehensible.

Liara and Shepard combined their fire on one side of the ship, only to be met with fire from behind them, and this pattern repeated itself for several minutes.

"Tali! We're dying up here!" Shepard roared back into his comms.

"I'm doing all I can Shepard! Just shoot the bosh'tets!"

"What the hell do you think we're doing?"

For the love of god, this was supposed to be an **infiltration **mission! And they were rapidly running out of thermal clips!

Finally the squadrons of enemies ceased temporarily and Shepard jogged down to the main door to find Tali just working at it.

Shepard wiped some poor human's blood off his armor and asked, "Well?"

Tali glanced back for just a moment before shaking her head in a way that clearly indicated that Shepard's presence was the last thing she needed. "Not good. I'm about halfway done, but the energy I'm having to siphon from this section of the Broker's base is staggering. If it wasn't for the unlimited electricity from these giant lightning rods, this door would be closed shut for good."

Shepard shot a look at one of the lightning rods as she mentioned them. Without those, they would've already been overwhelmed. It really was amazing how many of the Shadow Broker's minions could be electrocuted that easily.

"So how much longer are we looking at?"

"Keelah, Shepard. Stop bothering me. This is going to be an annoying process and-no...No! NO! NONONONONO!"

Tali started screaming 'No's as she pounded on the door angrily and the interface disappeared.

Shepard looked down at her, "What the hell just happened?"

"We just lost all power to this section! The Broker must've cut it off! Shepard, I can't open this door!"

Shepard just sighed and walked away, "I'm going to regret this." He pulled a needle out of a shoulder compartment and tossed a it to Liara, who, fortunately, caught it. "Inject that into me in a couple of seconds or I'm going to die."

"What? Shepard, whatever you're doing, stop it!"

"We have to open that door Liara!"

"Yes, but Shepard we-"

Shepard outstretched his assault rifle to the nearest lightning rod and began to fire, while simultaneously pointing his omni-blade at the door. As soon as the first bullet hit, the electricity discharged, jumping from bullet to bullet, all the way to the assault rifle, through Shepard's body, out of the omni-blade, and at the door.

"S-S-S-S-SH-SH-SH-SHI-SHI-SHIIIIIT!" Shepard began to yelp and scream as the electricity coursed through his body. He collapsed onto the floor as soon as the current of electricity finished.

Tali ran over to him and checked his pulse, there was nothing. "Keelah, Liara the needle!"

Liara opened up his chest plate and jammed the needle into his heart, pushing down to inject whatever was in the needle into his body.

After a few seconds his eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, taking a deep breath. "That's how you open a door!" Shepard sealed his chest plate and walked through the door as soon as Tali opened it. She turned to him, "Don't every do that again! Bosh'tet! You had me really worried..."

Shepard just chuckled, "Well it's certainly motivation for you to work faster, isn't it?"

His light hearted quip was retaliated with by a sharp jab in the ribs with a shotgun, "Bosh'tet."

Liara just stared at Shepard, dumbfounded, as they walked. "How did you know that would work? And how did you know you'd be shocked until your heart stopped?"

"Because the metal in my skeleton is conductive, and ever since me and Joker's first mission, right before Eden Prime, I've kept one of those syringes just in case... well in case Joker tries to do something stupid, like slingshot the Normandy around a sun."

* * *

After two and half hours of ridiculous firefights through incredibly narrow corridors they finally came to the right room, a drell was fastened to a table. His skin was about the same as Thane's. "Wow. So you're Liara's friend?"

"And you're the dead guy we helped steal" Feron replied with an annoyed tone.

Shepard turned around and raised an eyebrow at Liara, "What now?"

Liara pinched her nose, "I... we... once we kill the Shadow Broker I'll tell you."

Shepard sighed, he clearly wasn't happy with the resolution, "Fine."

Liara turned her attention to the drell, "Feron, I'm so glad you're here."

"Yeah, I was gonna ask, what the hell are you doing here?"

The door opened and one of the Broker's guards tried to run in, only to be immediately shot by one of Shepard's pistols. "Isn't it obvious?" Tali chipped in. After Feron's look remained unchanged from it's previous curiosity, she elaborated, "Saving you, killing the Broker. Now if I can just-" Feron started screaming and Tali backed away from the console, "Notmyfaultnotmyfaultnotmyfau ltnotmyfault!"

Feron screamed at the control room, "It is your damn fault! Did no one ever tell you not to electrocute people you're trying to rescue!?

Shepard met Feron's angry glare, "So how do we free you?"

"You're going to have to do it from the Broker's command console. So just sneak in and-"

Shepard pulled out his pistols and opened the door, "Let's go kill the Shadow Broker!"

Tali followed suit, "You take me to such nice places John."

Liara stayed behind and sighed, "Feron. We'll free you, please trust me."

"I'll just wait here."

* * *

The trio burst into the Broker's office, raising their guns to meet him. He was massive, with a strangely shaped head, definitely not anything that they had ever encountered before.

He put down a datapad and calmly asked in a deep, foreboding voice, "Here for the drell? Reckless. Even for you, Commander."

Shepard scoffed, "The bombing on Illium wasn't exactly subtle."

"Extreme, but necessary."

Liara's temper rose, "No it wasn't! Neither was caging Feron for two years!"

"Dr. T'Soni. Your interference caused all this. Feron betrayed me when he handed you Shepard's body. The drell is simply paying the price."

Tali chimed in, "Keelah, if you're working with the race we plan to hunt down, you think we wouldn't notice you?"

"It was a mutually beneficial partnership. Your arrival is convenient. The Collector's offer still stands."

"Surrender. I've faced worse than you, Saren, geth, Collectors. Guess what happened to them," Shepard offered, more as a formality than anything else.

"I am not a Collector or a geth. You have not yet faced anything like me."

Liara checked her SMG's clip for what must have been the fourth time, "For someone so smug, you have no where left to hide."

"You travel with fascinating companions, doctor. I'm surprised you brought the quarian T'Soni. Her supposed leadership on Haestrom got most of her team killed."

Tali wavered at the last comment, but prepared her shotgun nonetheless. Liara fiercely defended her comrades, "You're not putting a hand on anyone!"

"It is pointless to challenge me asari. I know your every secret while you fumble in the dark."

A flicker of a smile appeared on Liara's face. "Is that right? You're a yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined on their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact party. This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker sixty years ago, then took over. I'm guessing you were taken by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave... or a pet. How am I doing?" The Shadow Broker, who had remained seated and calm, rose as soon as Liara finished.

His true size was quickly revealed, he was gargantuan, easily three times Shepard's height. His focus turned to Shepard, "Commander. Is it truly worth your love's life for you to kill me? Surely you value her precious existence more than an idiotic drell and a manipulative old friend?"

"Don't play games with me. You've killed my colleagues, and hurt people I care dearly about, and that is not a very safe place to stand! I'm Commander Shepard and you're the biggest information broker in the galaxy. Think about what you know. Think about who I am. Think about what I've done. And then do yourself the biggest favor you could ever do to yourself. Surrender."

A few seconds of absolute silence occured. Then the yahg slammed his fist into his desk, ripping it into two pieces, and throwing them both to hit Shepard and Tali respectively.

Shepard slowly crawled his way out from under the desk and sprinted over to Tali's motionless body. "Damnit Tali. He quickly examined her to make sure there were no breaches in her suit and then sliced the desk again, removing the pressure from her legs. "Sit tight, I'm going to go kill a yahg" Shepard kissed her forehead and stood up.

The Broker had a Revenant assault rifle and was trapping Liara behind a rapidly weakening pillar. Shepard grabbed his Cain and fired. When the smoke finally cleared, all he could see was a giant pissed off alien charging towards him with surprisingly resilient shields covering him and an orange shield on his arm. Lucky for him, he had opted for hand to hand in Alliance training. The Commander dove under the Shadow Broker, narrowly missing a furious punch.

Fortunately, that gave him enough time to make a jab with his omni-blade. It dissipated as soon as it touched the surface of the shimmering armor, forcing the frustrated commander to resort to simply punching the yahg. A few seconds passed in silence. Shepard backed away slowly as the Shadow Broker turned around and stood there in silence, Liara just looked on in silence. Finally, the Broker spoke. "You really thought that would work? One tiny little punch?"

"Yeah, well... no." The Broker slammed his fist into Shepard, who was thrown through one of the pillars and landed besides Liara. Liara yelled out, "Shepard! Are you okay?"

"Owww..." was the only response from the debris under which he resided. Liara rolled around from pillar to pillar as she exclaimed her plan, "Keep him occupied, alright? That's all I need!"

Shepard emerged coughing from the debris and began to shoot at the Broker with his pistol. The enraged yahg turned to the commander and began to charge, Shepard dodged off to the side and slammed his fist into the Broker's stomach. The Broker initiated his shield to avoid further damage from the shots Liara was firing. Liara screamed, "Move!"

Shepard dodged off to the side and Liara slammed some type of glass down on the Broker from the ceiling above him. Somehow, though, the material stored in the ceiling light began to erase the yahg's form, effectively killing him.

"Holy shit Liara!"

"I know, I was just taking a 'shot in the dark'."

Shepard ran over to Tali, still sprawled out on the floor, "Hey... you awake? Any injuries?" Tali stirred, "I'll live... Keelah I feel like I was hit by a truck."

"Nope. Just a table."

Liara, still panting, began to walk back to the entrance, hoping to reclaim Feron.

"Shadow Broker? This is operative Morat, we've had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?

"Operative Shora requesting update. Are we still online?"

Liara turned to face the screens on the wall behind her, all requesting this and that from the Shadow Broker.

"Shadow Broker, I've lost our feed. We are online and awaiting instructions."

Liara bowed her head and walked to the wall.

She bent over the desk and pulled up a voice modulator, "This is the Shadow Broker. Situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications momentarily."

Feron burst in through the door with his pistol out, immediately lowering it when he realized the gravity of the situation.

"However, we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within one solar day. Shadow Broker, out."

Feron just stared, bewildered, at Liara, "Goddess of oceans! It's you! You... how..."

"Well, everyone who has ever seen him in person is dead so..."

Shepard finished her sentence, "You're the new Shadow Broker. Is this really a good idea?"

Liara's stormy blue eyes were full of suppressed emotions, anger, pain, satisfaction. Still she maintained her austere demeanor, "It was either that or lose everything. His contacts, his trading sources, they'll really help us. With the Shadow Broker's information network I can... I can give you..."

Shepard shot a look at Feron expectingly.

Feron nodded, "I'll uh, check the power systems. And perhaps the quarian could help."

Tali nodded and followed Feron as they both stumbled out of the room.

Liara walked over to a corner of the room and put her head in her hands, only to feel Shepard's strong hands caressing her shoulder, "What is it?"

She turned around, tears were streaming down her eyes and collecting in pools on the floor, "It's over. It's finally... for two years... "

Shepard embraced her, letting her head rest on his firm shoulders and placing one of his hands on the back of her head. "It's alright."

Liara smiled for the first time since they had met on Illium, "Okay... we should focus. Let's see what our options are."

Liara leaned back over to see the consoles on the wall, "No safeguards or restrictions... it's like he never expected anyone but himself being here. And it's all ours. I'll need to go through his files, come back later and I'll have something useful for you. All I wanted was to rescue Feron, but is it wrong that part of me wants this? With the Shadow Broker's network, I can help you, maybe I can turn this whole thing into something... better. "

Shepard nodded, "Don't be a stranger next time."

"Little chance of that. Come back later, I'll have something for you. And maybe we can talk."

"I'd like that. I'll gather up Tali and head back to the Normandy to-uh-..." Shepard glanced down to see the crimson stains all over his armor, "Clean up what's left of the Shadow Broker's guards."

* * *

"Liara! You uh..."

Liara turned to face Shepard, and seeing his bewilderment at the status of the room, completed, "Clean up well? Not a priority right now, but I'll find someone to do it later."

"Right. I brought some old friends."

Garrus and Tali came through, headed by Cynthia. "We brought beer biatch!" Cynthia announced loudly. Garrus muttered something and she sighed, "Yes. Dextro as well." Tali's voice could barely be heard, but Cynthia quickly responded, "Yes! Filtered! Ugh... can we just go get drunk?"

Liara chuckled lightly and tapped a few things on her console, "I'd love to, but I'm busy. Sorry."

Shepard sighed, "How important is this work?"

"Well, I'm just trying to get my bearings, but I have to-" Shepard picked her up by the waist and heaved her onto his shoulders, "Feron! Liara needs you to figure out how her data feeds work while she gets drunk!"

Feron appeared from behind a door, "How did you know I was here?"

"I assumed, now could you do her work for just-" Shepard glanced at Cynthia, "an hour?" Cynthia nodded. "Yup. An hour."

Feron looked at Liara, "I suppose she could use a break." Liara, who had been pounding at Shepard's back, yelled out, "John! Put me down! Feron!"

Shepard walked out the door with her on his shoulders, "To the Normandy! Away!"

* * *

Shepard tipped his head back and chugged his bottle of brandy, accompanied by the cheering of the group. They had retreated to his cabin for the festivities.

Shepard finished and dropped his bottle on the floor, "WHOOOO! I am Commander Shepard and this is my favorite booze on the Normandy!"

Cynthia burst out laughing with Garrus falling next to her while Liara danced in front of the luminous light of the fish tank. Later, when they sobered a bit, they talked about Therum, Noveria, and Feros. Eventually they had said everything else, so they talked about Virmire. They talked about Kaiden, and Ashley, and Wrex, and Pressly. When morning came they all cleared out and left without a word, but it didn't have to be said. They were all thinking of the old Normandy, of the trouble it got them into. And of the terrorists who they had fought. And how they needed to end them.

* * *

I know it's not much considering the time I took to write it, but hey. It's something. Please review.


	25. Political Minefields

Sorry this took so long to update, I'm now on spring break but I got the Bioshock Rapture edition in preparation for Bioshock Infinite. GUUUYZ GUESS WUT!? BIOSHOCK IZ A PRETTY GOOD GAME!

In the time between my most recent chapter and this one I wrote a number of short stories detailing tragic ends of Mass Effect 3, random one-shots, and Shepard on Torfan. Go to my user profile by clicking above and read+review them if you want to check it out. PLEASE GOD CHECK IT OUT! IF I DON'T MEET A QUOTA THE FANFICTION POLICE WILL ELECTROCUTE MY MAC!

By the way since I skipped over them I figured I should let viewers know that Jacob's father is alive and in prison after his loyalty mission, and Thane reconciled with his son. Now! HEEEERE'S LEGION!

And more stuff

* * *

"Stuck in a creepy corridor inside of a Reaper? This is just like-"

Shepard pinched the bridge of his nose, "I swear to god Garrus, if you say just like old times one more time we're going to have a serious problem."

"I-... well you finish every conversation with the trite, 'I should go."

Cynthia tilted her head back, "Wow, you actually do that."

Shepard shrugged, "Well, I guess everybody does something like that."

Tali facepalmed (or rather, mask-palmed), "I don't do that."

Kasumi appeared out of no where with the walking group, "**Keelah**, you can't possibly think of something you repeat over and over?"

Zaeed contended, "It may not be a goddamn motto, but you never shut up about Jacob and his abs."

Jacob stirred from examining his assault rifle, "What now?"

Kasumi lightly patted Jacob's shoulder, "Nothing. Now do some push-ups, they're mesmerizing."

Grunt just snorted, "I don't do that."

Miranda pointed to a husk without legs, "Grunt, what does that husk remind you of?"

"I don't know." "**Anybody else hungry?**" The entire team cooperatively chimed in for the last portion.**  
**

Shepard grinned, "It's only you people that could make walking through a dead Reaper enjoyable."

This comment earned gratuitous groans from the entire team, culminating in Jack calling Shepard a pussy for what felt like the fiftieth time.

* * *

The entire voyage throughout the ship had been eery, sniper shots rang throughout the corridors even when everybody's weapons were sheathed, but they could never find the person who had fired the weapon. Still, this was by far the strangest thing any of the team had ever seen. They were surrounded by husks, swarming them, too close for the Cain, too many for them to hold out for long. Then, from a ledge, shots were fired into the husks, each one a perfect headshot and each with only microseconds of intervals.

As soon as the husks were finished off, a few mere seconds after the onslaught of sniper fire began, everyone's eyes were drawn to the ledge the fire had emanated from. There stood a lone geth, a N7 plate on his chest barely concealing a large hole, black armor with a red shoulder tinted bronze by the bizzare lights. All it said was, "Shepard-Commander." Then it left as quickly as it had arrived, walking away casually.

Samara was the first to speak up, "That geth did just save our lives, correct?"

Thane contributed his theory, "Perhaps the geth have had their bodies and souls disconnected until now, but it seems their soul has just made a reappearance."

Mordin sniffed, "Geth do not possess souls. Implausible to assume intelligence disconnected from platforms. Only two probable possibilities. That geth wants to kill us itself. Or it is of a seperate faction."

Tali shook her head, "If that geth just talked, there are hundreds more already here, or that geth would have less intelligence than a varren."

All three of them were proven correct in the next couple hours in their own ways, but their curiosity was put on the back-burner so that the team could proceed through the rest of the complex, ideally to the rogue geth.

* * *

The core opened up, and Shepard unleashed nuclear hell on the reactor core. Even a Reaper couldn't stand the pure raw power the weapon unleashed. But that still left an issue Miranda voiced, "What do we do with the geth?"

Jack, between fires of her shotgun, yelled out, "Leave! It! Here!"

Cynthia disagreed, "No one has ever captured a geth 'alive', this is an opportunity!"

Shepard crouched down to examine the geth body, "Tali. Cynthia is correct in that no one has ever captured a live geth before, right?"

"Well yes, but Shepard this thing is dangerous!"

"It saved our lives. We owe it at least this, and I want to question it. Grunt, carry it."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the strongest, because we can stand to lose the firepower you bring to this fight, or because I'm too lazy. Take your pick."

The team was circled around Grunt as he heaved the geth onto his shoulders and continually so as they ran to an edge, threw the geth into the airlock on the Normandy, and jumped in pairs or trios into the airlock. Shepard was, as usual, the last to go as he took a running leap off the edge. If it wasn't for the failing on-board gravity, he would never have made it, but they were fortunate.

As soon as Shepard hit the metal floor of the airlock entrance, the doors closed and they walked in. Joker turned around to greet them, "Hey Shepard, Tali, I have a question. Why are you planning to get us all killed by a geth!?"

Shepard barked back, "Pay attention to piloting, and this geth saved our life, so deal with it!"

Joker turned his focus back to escaping from the falling Reaper as Grunt heaved the damaged geth to the AI Core.

* * *

Miranda and Jacob had complained about his decision, but there was no chance in hell this geth was going either to Cerberus or out the airlock. And as usual, he seemed right, once activated the geth didn't attack or threaten the organics, it just waited for questioning.

"Can you understand me?"

"Yes."

"What is your name?"

"Geth."

"Do you as an individual have a name?"

"No. We are all geth. This platform houses 1,183 geth units."

EDI's avatar appeared, quoting the Bible, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

Shepard nodded, "That seems appropriate."

The plates around Legion's head whirred to life, lifting up and descending down, "Christian Bible, Gospel of Mark 5:9. We accept this name. We are Legion, a geth platform, and we wish to integrate with the Normandy."

"You want to join us?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We wish to observe and help defeat the Reapers. We have followed your path, Eden Prime, Therum, Noveria, Feros, Virmire, Ilos. When we heard of your victory of the heretic geth, we wished to find you."

"Heretic geth?"

"Yes. The geth you defeated were not true geth, they followed a doctrine laid down by the Reapers."

"Do they compose the majority of geth?"

"They do not. They compose only 4% of registered geth."

"If you joined us, what would you do?"

"Assist you in combat."

Shepard examined the geth slowly, "I just have one more question, why were you on the Reaper? You said you were following us, did you just beat us to the punch?"

"... No. We wished to acquire data the Reapers had concerning the heretics."

"Alright... Legion."

Shepard extended his hand, meaning for Legion to shake it. When the geth just stuck out his three fingered hand idly in turn, Shepard withdrew his own, "Glad to have you on the Normandy. Just... don't go to engineering unless you want another hole in your chest. I'd like copies of all data you can give us. To foster trust."

The geth's head plates lifted and fell again, "We will share nonclassified information to help foster unit cooperation."

"Thank you. Gentlemen," Shepard turned to the marines guarding the AI Core, "I think we should leave Legion to his business."

* * *

Shepard embraced Tali in his arms, his warmth seeping through her suit. Still, that wasn't enough to comfort the worried quarian. "John I... they want to exile me," She finished with sorrow. "Calm down. Do you know why they're calling the trial?"

The luminescent light of his fish tank lit up her purple mask and made the distress she was feeling all the more obvious. "If we have time, could we go to the Migrant Fleet for my trial?"

"Of course. In fact, we'll do that right now, EDI will need some time to integrate the IFF into the Normandy. Did you know this was the reason when they summoned you a week ago?"

"No."

"Alright... you and I will take a team onto the ship they're holding the trial on and then we can talk about the geth who's staying in the AI Core."

"The what!?"

"Nothing."

* * *

The Normandy was close enough to the Migrant Fleet to see the specific ship they were boarding now. The fleet itself was massive, if an Alliance fleet could take down Sovereign it was staggering to think what this thing could do to a Reaper once they finally came. The aggressive quarians were asking for a password, and Tali spoke into her helmet one of the most beautiful things Shepard had ever heard. "After time adrift among open stars, among tides of light and shoals of dust, I will return to where I began."

It was poetic, describing the tragic beauty of the quarians drifting among stars which they could never stay in or own. There was something about being homeless and unloved in the quarians that Shepard identified with. Still, putting his thoughts aside, Shepard and his squad of thirteen walked through the airlock with their helmets on, not an inch of flesh uncovered. The team was admirable, the galaxy's best mercenary, theif, justicar, and so on.

As they stepped through the airlock and onto the Neema they already faced heavy resistance, a foreshadowing of what was to come. "Hey! This is a trial for Tali and her captain, not her whole damn crew!"

Shepard looked back at the squad, "You never know when you're going to need to have something shot fifty times."

"Not here, I'll tell you that. You can keep three for bodyguards, but I want the rest back in your ship!"

Shepard sighed, "Garrus, Cynthia, Legion. The rest of you get back onboard. Sorry for the interruption." Garrus and Cynthia stepped forward and Legion broke free from the crowd. The ship captain immediately objected again, this time with a shotgun at hand, "What the hell is that!?"

Shepard looked at Legion carefully, "I think... yup. It's a geth. I thought you of all people would recognize one."

"Commander it's your own damn business how you plan to get your people killed, but I am not letting one of those abominations onto my ship!"

"Creator, we simply wish to-"

"Shut up!" The captain roared back in protest.

Shepard walked up and grabbed the shotgun, shoving it upwards at the ceiling, "Legion is a member of my crew, and he will be where I need him to be. No one, not even the captain of one of my valued crew member's ship, will oppose me on that matter." The captain recoiled and backed away slowly. Shepard leaned in and whispered, "And just to be sure I've gained your favor, go ahead and tell EDI that I authorized a transfer of 175,000 units of palladium to your ship.

The captain nodded and then cocked his head inquisitively, "What's an EDI?"

Without thinking Shepard blurted out, "Oh the Normandy's AI." When that gathered strange looks from around the room Shepard calmly announced, "Make that 600,000 units if you tell the Admiralty Board it was a gift of good will and no one in this room remembers this conversation."

The general murmur was one of acceptance so Shepard casually strode into the main room, choosing to ignore the stares that were thrust upon him and Legion. He muttered to Tali, "I kind of expected him to tell you what you're being charged for."

"He usually would. Then again, the defendants wouldn't usually bring a geth to a hearing. Are you sure **it **has to be here."

"No, but I'm sure that **he **has to be here. It's a strong diplomatic move if Legion can talk peace with the Admirals. Worst case scenario, we have to send him back."

Tali angrily responded, "Worst case scenario I put a bullet in his data core."

Legion, sensing the animosity, stayed silent in the matter.

The doors to the main room opened, two female quarians were revealed, they were conversing in the entryway. Tali walked up to one and held her arms out to hug her. The woman was about to reciprocate, but she recoiled upon seeing Legion, "What the hell is that!?"

Shepard walked forward and turned to Tali, "Is everyone going to say that? Because if so this will become very boring very quickly."

Tali gave Shepard a glare and turned to the quarian, redoing her attempt at a hug, "Auntie Raan!"

Her aunt didn't return the embrace. Tali, taking the message, backed away, "What's wrong? And what am I being tried for?"

"Tali, it's good to see you, but the geth has to go! Your case revolves around... I'll tell you later. Just get rid of the geth."

Shepard sighed, "I'll leave him out of the trial, but he's staying on this ship."

Raan nodded and gestured to Garrus and Cynthia, "Them as well, this will work best if it's just you and Tali."

Shepard nodded and turned to the couple behind him, "Make sure no one shoots Legion."

Garrus shrugged, "How?"

Cynthia rolled her eyes, "You're big, scaly, and you have scars. Take a page from Wrex's book and tell them you'll eat them."

Raan grabbed Shepard's arm, "Follow me, the trial is about to begin."

* * *

"Captain Shepard, will you stand as Tali's attorney?"

Shepard leaned on the railing and looked thoughtful for a second, for a moment Tali thought he might refuse. "I will. And by making me her captain and her attorney, you have already proved something I think I would have to pine desperately for in any other situation. You either have substantial evidence," Shepard turned a gaze that could rip apart Saren to the Admiralty Board, "or you have made a very, very, **very **bold move. And that is not a smart thing."

The board made a concerted and very appreciable effort to avoid looking flustered in light of that comment, but they failed. Eventually one of the admirals spoke up, according to the information Tali had given him it was Zaal'Koris. "The charge is bringing active geth parts onto the Migrant Fleet, you sent them to your father, Rael'Zorah. Recently they reactivated. Then they took the Alarei, and killed the crew."

Tali was taken aback, staggering towards the railing, "I... what?"

After the few moments he took for his own shock, Shepard took the opportunity he had against all moral instincts he had and pointed out her agony, "Look at her! She had no idea about either the geth or what happened to her father! Now excuse me gentlemen, we're going to the Alarei and we're going to save Tali's father! Legion, Garrus, Cynthia, come on out here!" The trio appeared, and Tali began to slowly walk behind them.

The Admiralty Board took notice of Legion and the crowd began yelling. Shepard turned around, "Save it! This geth was to meet with the Admiralty Board to attempt peace with you, maybe get your planet back! If you want away the idea of getting your planet back without a drop of blood shed, be my guest. But if you're smart, you'll shut up and let Legion help us kill geth."

After they started walking away for the second time Shepard muttered to Legion, "Are you okay with killing hostile geth? They're heretics or something, right?"

"To facilitate unit cohesion, we will terminate the opponent geth if they become a threat, but we would ask for an opportunity to reason with the rogue geth units."

"Done."

"Thank you Shepard-Commander."

* * *

The team sat back on the quarian ship, biding their time. Finally Legion returned. "Shepard-Commander," he said, "they are going to terminate us."

"What?"

"They said they respect us, but they must report this to the geth via a comm. buoy. I disagree, their actions would cause a war earlier th They gave us fifteen seconds to return here and explain before firing on us."

"What?!"

"Those fifteen seconds are now up. I suggest we defend ourselves."

"WHAT!?" Shepard dove for cover, narrowly avoiding a hail of bullets from geth that appeared from the doors.

"Conciseness would have been appreciated Legion!"

"We believed that you preferred length to brevity in briefings. We apologize."

"Apologies aren't worth crap if I die right after them!"

"We understand. Apology rescinded."

"... I mean... it's worth something..."

"Shepard-Commander, we suggest you cease talking and resume firing."

"... Shut up Legion."

"Shepard-Commander, we find a flaw in this order. We have nothing to shut and-"

"SHUT UP LEGION!"

Legion's head plating lifted and fell, "Understood."

* * *

Shepard stood over a heap of geth corpses he had amassed in one section of the room. "That ended better than I expected."

Garrus sighed, "I thought I was the best sniper..."

Legion's head-plates whirred, "We intentionally missed several times to 'throw you a bone'."

Yet another sigh escaped Garrus's mandibles, "That would have been nicer if you hadn't told me..."

"We apologize. To establish unit cohesion we reached a consensus that we should allow you to win. Now that we have failed in that endeavor we shall attempt mockery to facilitate cohesion. We encourage you to drain fluids from an unspecified object that is implied to be a phallic in nature."

Garrus's face contorted in what could only be a confused expression. "What?"

Tali called back from the room she had just finished hacking, "Legion just told you to suck it."

With his head hung low Garrus trudged on, "Oh..."

* * *

With their flanks covered by the other squad members, Shepard and Tali approached the console slowly, expecting some kind of ambush or attack. When events failed to meet that expectation, Tali began to scan and activate the console.

"Most of the data is corrupt, but a few bits might be left," she tenuously added. This whole mission had been enforcing the notion that whatever happened here was Rael'Zorah's fault. What she added next did not deter that line of thought, "They were performing experiments on geth systems, looking to find new ways to overcome geth resistance to programming."

Shepard sighed, "What they did to the geth here isn't right..."

"It's not testing on prisoners Shepard, I only sent Father parts! You saw what Saren and Sovereign did with the geth! We need any advantages the research done here could provide."

Shepard backed up as a response to the sudden outburst, waiting until she calmed down before he spoke again, "Do you know what kind of tests he was running?"

"No, Father just told me to send any geth technology that wasn't a danger to the fleet. I suspected he might be testing weapons but I though he was just working on new ways to bypass shields and armor."

"There's nothing there that will clear your name, is there?"

"No, it's mostly just results data, I don't even understand all of it. Though there is evidence to suggest that they were activating the geth deliberately... if they were... if they were then Father was doing something terrible. What was all this Father? You promised you would build me a house on the homeworld. Was this going to bring us back home?"

"Whatever he was doing here, it wasn't justified. With Legion I think we can begin diplomatic relations between geth and quarians, either get you back to your homeworld or just establish peace so you can settle elsewhere without fear of a geth attack."

Tali turned from the console and began to approach Shepard angrily, waving a finger in his face as she spoke, "You have no idea what it's like! You have a planet to go back to! My home is one hull breach away from extinction!"

"And if you go to Rannoch intending for war then the geth will readily provide that hull breach! You don't need to throw your home away in a war you don't need!"

Tali backpedaled slightly, "Don't need? Shepard, if I don't wear a helmet in my own home, I die! A single kiss could put me in the hospital! Every time you touch a flower with bare fingers, inhale its fragrance without air filters, you're doing something I can't! Damn the Pilgrimage... without it I might have never known what I was missing and what we had lost when we lost our homeworld. Shepard, colonizing Rannoch as opposed to colonizing a foreign planet is the difference in acclimation of sixty years and six hundred. For anyone alive today to watch a sunset without a mask, we need to take back our home! At least we can take back one ship... come on."

When they walked through the next room, Garrus, Cynthia, and Legion were amassing geth corpses in a heap again-this time on the bridge-so the science teams wouldn't have to round them up. As Tali descended the stairs she became frenzied, "No... no... no!" She ran across the room, coming to a stop at a corpse just past one of the doors.

Legion silently evaluated the situation before speaking, "Creator Zorah, do you know this deceased Creator?"

Tali began to sob as she cradled the dead man in her arms, "Father..."

Cynthia and Shepard exchanged a glance and they walked up to her, Shepard providing the first statement of condolence dolefully, "Tali I'm so sorry..."

The exasperated quarian turned her head and screamed, "Shut up! He can't be dead! He always had a plan, masked life signs or... or an onboard medical stasis program maybe. He... He wouldn't... You're wrong! He wouldn't just die like this! He wouldn't leave me to clean up his mess! He can't..."

Shepard lightly grazed her shoulder with his fingers in an inviting motion, "Hey... hey... come here." She gradually pulled herself away from the corpse and stood, meeting Shepard's strong, comforting arms as she did. Tali continued to sob as she pulled away from him, "Damn it... damn it... I'm... I'm sorry John."

"You've got nothing to be sorry about."

Garrus and Cynthia carefully and respectfully approached the situation before individually embracing the desperate quarian themselves.

Unfortunately, for this situation Shepard had brought one of the most inconvenient figures, and then he spoke. "Creator Tali'Zorah, we have found useful data on Creator Rael'Zorah's omni-tool."

A message began to play, Rael'Zorah's last words. "Tali, if you are listening to this message then I am dead. The geth have gone active. I don't have much time. Their main hub is near me, on the bridge. You will need to destroy it to stop their processes from forming new neural links. Make sure Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen see the data. They must-" The message abruptly cut short with the sound of gunshots.

Out of all the people and aliens in that room, at that moment, only one could find the exact words to say to Tali. "Creator Tali'Zorah. May we speak or would you find that discomforting?"

"No... it's all right Legion."

"We can tell this is not what you desired. Despite the nature of Creator Rael'Zorah's last message to you, it is clear he held the affection befitting the relationship he possessed with you. He was not perfect, however this message is the best he could do for you, due to his attempts to try and assist you."

Tali sobbed and Legion's head plates whirred a moment before his body extended its arms. Tali took the gesture appropriately and let the machine embrace her, slowly reaching her arms around to do the same to the geth. Once she freed herself from Legion's grasp, she took a deep breath, "I... I'm alright. Thank you all."

Casting a glance at her father, she added, "I don't know what's worse: thinking that he never really cared, or thinking that he did and this was the only way he could show it. I... I suppose it doesn't matter. One way or the other, I cared. And I'm here. And we're ending this."

Tali turned her attention to the main console in this room, "This console is linked to the main hub Father mentioned. Disabling it shuts down any geth we missed. And it looks like some of the recordings remained intact. They'll tell us how this happened, and what Father did."

Shepard placed a reassuring hand on Tali's shoulder, "You really don't want to hear it." It was more statement than question, nonetheless Tali responded, "No. We have to, I know, I just... this is terrible, Shepard. I don't want to know that he was part of this."

Tali activated it on her omni-tool and the screen sprang to life, display Rael'Zorah and two other quarians working on a disabled geth.

"Do we have the parts to bring them online?"

"Yes, the new shipments from your daughter will let us add two more geth to the network."

"We're nearing a breakthrough on systemic viral attacks. Perhaps we should inform the Admiralty Board, just to be safe."

"No, we're too close, I promised to build my daughter a house on the homeworld. I'm not going to sit and wait, while the politicians argue."

"We'd have an easier time of it if Tali'Zorah could send back more working material."

"Absolutely not! I don't want Tali exposed to any political blowback, leave her out of this and assemble new geth out of what we have. Bypass security protocols if need be."

Shepard refocused back on Tali, "It sounds like he was doing this for you."

Tali shook her head and gazed at the floor, "I never wanted any of this, Shepard. Keelah, I never wanted this. Everything here is his fault. I tried to pretend it didn't point to him, but this... when this comes up in the trial, they'll... We can't tell them! Not the Admirals, not anyone!"

"Tali, I'm not going to let you get exiled."

"I know what the punishment is! You think I want to live knowing I can never see the fleet again? But I can't go back into that room and say that my father was the worst war criminal in our people's history!

Shepard was shocked, they had finally found the evidence that could clear her, and she wouldn't use it. "Rael'Zorah doesn't need you to fight his battles any more. You heard him say he didn't want you caught in the politics."

"You don't understand Shepard... They would strike his name from the manifestos of every ship he had ever worked on! He would be worse than an exile, he'd be a traitor for our people, held up as a monster in a cautionary tale for children! I can't let all the good he did be destroyed for this."

With the frustration in his voice apparent Shepard commanded, "Tali. Look at me. I will use this evidence if I have to. I will not let you be exiled for your father's crimes. If I can't find another way, then I will use this to clear your name, and for that I'm sorry. But I have to do this."

"You're my captain in this hearing, Shepard. It's your choice. But please, don't destroy what my father was."

"I will if I think it's necessary to save who you are."

Tali gestured to the door with her head, "Come on. If we take much longer the Admirals will declare us dead and none of this will matter."

* * *

When they returned to the Rayya after a long, silent shuttle ride, the halls were clear, and Zaal'Koris's voice was droning on through the speakers, "We need to face facts. There has been no word from the Alarei, there is no reason to think Tali'Zorah survived."

Shepard grunted, "Unbelievable. Let's go."

"...I recommend posthumous exile..."

"...no conviction... killed in action..."

"...immediate vote..."

The squad of five confidently strode through the room and took their places standing in front of the Admiralty Board.

Shepard grinned like a wolf with his eyes set on his prey and began to address the judges. "Shala'Raan. Daro'Xen. Han'Gerrel. Pompous ass."

Zaal'Koris stumbled backwards like he had been struck, "There is no need for-"

Shepard began to roar, "I THINK THERE IS A NEED FOR IT! YOU TRIED TO EXILE A DEAD WOMAN FOR A CRIME SHE DID NOT COMMIT!"

The crown began to murmur excitedly.

"Now. When you idiots are done squabbling, go take back your ship. Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya has taken back the Alarei from rogue geth, that alone should be proof of her loyalty."

Gerrel began to speak, "Shepard, while we appreciate the act, saying that with a geth by your side is-"

"Shut the hell up, I brought him here as an ambassador and we'll talk about him later. Until then, I believe we were ruling over Tali'Zorah thanks to the premature actions of vas Qwib-Qwib here." The fuming commander gestured at Zaal'Koris.

Shala'Raan spoke calmly, "Captain, we would appreciate it if you would please stop interrupting the Admirals and calm yourself."

"I'd appreciate it if these bosh'tets would stop slandering my crew," Shepard retaliated.

"Anyway... Tali'Zorah's loyalty was never in doubt, only her judgement. Did you find anything on the Alarei that could clarify what happened there?"

Tali cast a look at Shepard and through his helmet he mouthed the words _"I'm sorry."_

He began to walk forward, and Tali muttered to him, "Shepard. Please... don't..."

Shala'Raan questioned the approaching marine, "Does Captain Shepard have any new evidence to submit to his hearing."

Shepard chuckled, much to the bemusement of the crowd and the Admiralty Board. "Do I have any new evidence to submit to prove Tali'Zorah's judgement..."

He began to pace back and forth, facing the board and then turning away from them over and over. Finally he turned to them, "Let me ask you something... how many lives has each of your judgement saved? Hmm? Hundreds, maybe? Thousands? Maybe even millions? I hope so, because from what I've seen today your judgements are woefully inadequate. Tali'Zorah **vas Normandy **nar Rayya has saved trillions with her supposedly question judgement! She **judged** that the geth she faced had valuable data, so she took it! She **judged** that I was trustworthy, so she gave it to me! She **judged** that I needed help, so she joined me! On Freedom's Progress I would've had Veetor'Nara given to Cerberus per the suggestion of two crew members of mine, but the **judgement **of Tali'Zorah persuaded me to send him back here! On Haestrom, there were thousands of geth and a colossus to boot! Kal'Reegar was willing to risk his life-by the way I hope to god you gave him a damn medal for that- for Tali'Zorah! He judged it necessary. What did Tali'Zorah do? She **judged** that it was best for him to stay down, that he wouldn't survive if we placed him in a high-risk situation for her! Kal'Reegar, I hate to call you out, but where are you?"

A single red-clad quarian rose from the masses, "Here."

Shepard pointed at him, "There is he. Do you see that people? Do you see where Kal'Reegar is? Where the fuck do you think he'd be if Tali'Zorah didn't have good judgement!? Any ideas? Reegar, you got any thoughts on that?"

Reegar nodded and yelled out, "Mrs. Zorah saved my life, it's thanks to her that we have the data we need!"

Shepard heard yelling from another section of the crowd, "Tali saved me too!"

Shepard examined the audience until he saw the origin of the voice, "Ah look at that. Veetor'Nara. Well, well, well. I ask both of you a question. Is Tali'Zorah's judgement flawed?"

Both of them vehemently responded 'no'.

Shepard grinned and leaned back on the railing, facing the crowd, "And knowing that Tali'Zorah has saved you all from the Reapers, WHO HERE THINKS TALI'ZORAH'S JUDGEMENT IS FLAWED!?"

The crowd began to roar as they agreed with Shepard. Tali just stood in awe at what Shepard had done.

Turning his attention back to the Admiralty Board Shepard stared Zaal'Koris down. "Frankly, I don't give a shit what you say here today. Tali'Zorah has done more for this fleet than you ever will. And she will continue to do more than you ever could regardless of whether or not you exile her. Do you know what we're going to do after this trial?"

The Admirals whispered amongst themselves. Shepard shook his head, "No? I didn't think so. Let me tell you what we're going to do. We're going to leave the Migrant Fleet. We're going to download a Reaper IFF. We're going to go through the Omega-4 Relay. And we're going to save the galaxy. What do you think you're going to do after this trial?"

Again, murmurs of discontent rippled through the Admiralty Board.

Shepard expanded his focus to encompass all of the Admirals. "Now. I'm going to ask you once, and only once. Knowing that Tali'Zorah has saved you and your people time and time again, and will continue to do so, do you question Tali's judgement?"

Several seconds of silence passed before Shala'Raan spoke, "Are the Admirals prepared to render judgement?"

In silence, the Admirals tapped at their omni-tools, deciding the fate of their largest celebrity.

Reading her omni-tool briefly, Raan met Tali's line of vision as the young quarian gazed up at her aunt hopefully.

"Tali'Zorah, in light of your history of service, we do not find sufficient evidence to convict. You are cleared of all charges. Commander Shepard, please accept these gifts in appreciation for you taking the time to represent one of our people." Shepard checked his omni-tool, they had given him schematics and designs for upgrades on the ship and their weapons.

Shepard nodded, "Two things. First of all, I didn't come here to represent one of your people. I came here to represent one of mine. Secondly, if you appreciate me you'll understand that the Reapers are coming, and the last thing the galaxy will need when that happens is millions of quarians burning in the skies above Rannoch. The geth are willing to negotiate for peace, aren't you Legion?"

"Affirmative."

That one word had more impact upon the crowd then the trial as a whole so far.

Koris spoke up for what Shepard prayed would be the last time. "Thank you Commander Shepard. I hope this board sincerely considers your advice."

Shepard nodded, "On a secondary note, Legion will be meeting with your Admiralty Board as a whole to discuss peace and what must happen for you to reclaim your homeworld without a single ship lost."

Legion's head-plates liften and lowered before he spoke in a low tone, "Commander, we did not volunteer for this."

"Yeah. Sorry buddy, you're being volunteered."

"... Thank you. We believe you have begun to diffuse a war in the making.

Raan finally concluded it, "This meeting is over. Go in peace, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Keelah se'lai."

* * *

Tali sighed as Shepard stroked her while they lay in his room, the long day was finally over. "I can't believe you pulled that off, I really thought you were going to use Father's admission."

Shepard grinned sheepishly, "I deleted it. Pretty much as soon as we reached the Rayya. My mind works better under pressure, without a back-up."

Tali sat up and slapped Shepard, "Owww... We can go back and get you exiled if you want!"

Lying back down, Tali responded "You could've told me earlier. Bosh'tet."

"Oh yeah... I uh... forgot about that."

"Still, thank you. I've never had anyone speak like that on my behalf. What you said... Thank you for being there for my father and me even when... Thank you."

"If you really want we can go back and get you exiled."

"Heh. Thanks, but I'm fine with things like this. It's... fun watching you shout."

Shepard smiled and checked his omni-tool, "Ah. Legion's done meeting with the Admiralty Board, he says it went well. I guess you have to report to engineering, huh?"

"Yeah. I gotta go." Tali lifted herself out of Shepard's arms and began to walk towards the door.

"Wait," Shepard ordered, "Tali, about what your father said, what he did... You deserved better."

"I got better, Shepard. I got you..."

From where he was standing it was difficult to tell, but he was almost certain she was smiling as she walked out his doors. He groaned and checked his omni-tool. "Oh great. Tuchanka. I was just saying I wanted to get the shit beaten out of me by a krogan."

* * *

Okay so that was a big chapter. Thank you to all new and old reviewers, I really appreciate the time it takes you to review. Also, if you have the inclination, if you review and include the names of couples you want me to include in my writing I will attempt to include those. I may exclude crack couplings like GruntxThane or JackxMiranda, but we'll see depending on the amount of people that want it. Oh and something else... I forgot... REVIEW!


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